Disappointed Moran refuses to make excuses after damaging Leitrim defeat in Wicklow

One thing you always get from Andy Moran is brutal honesty and it was no different last Sunday in Echelon Aughrim Park as the Leitrim manager refused to make excuses in the wake of the Green & Gold’s damaging Allianz NFL Division 4 defeat at the hands of Wicklow.

Wicklow hit the last six points of the game to win 0-15 to 1-9, handing Leitrim a potentially devastating defeat in the battle for promotion even with two home games to come against Laois and Sligo. And the Leitrim manager was in no mood to make excuses or soft-soap the implications of the defeat.

“We were delighted, we were thinking if we got it to four points, we’d have pushed it out to seven and we didn’t” reflected the Leitrim manager when talking about the second half, “O’Toole got his first point of the game when he came through the middle for the score and then we just didn’t see it out.

Leitrim's promotion hopes suffer heavy blow as Wicklow hit five late points to claim victory

WICKLOW 0-15 LEITRIM 1-9

“It was hugely strange, we fell away didn’t we and there is no point hiding away from it,” said a visibly upset Moran who added later “We’re making excuses, we’re three points up, wind on your backs and we didn’t do it.”

Moran’s analysis of the game included his own decision regarding substitutions: “We thought we had the guys coming off the bench to finish the game and we didn’t go and do it. Just didn’t happen - did we get all our substitutions right? Probably not but it was just that the game fell away and we couldn’t get a grip on it. I wouldn’t blame it on the bench or anything, it just fell away from us and we couldn’t get a grip on it.”

Games as tight as Sunday’s often turn on one or two incidents but the Leitrim manager refused to blame the failure to take a second goal chance or a Wicklow player not picking up a second yellow card, instead pointing to Leitrim’s own shortcomings in not pushing on when leading by three points.

“I didn’t notice that,” said Andy when asked about a challenge from the already booked Mark Kenny on Paul Keaney right after a missed goal chance, “I have to say, yeah, we’d be disappointed with that but to be fair lads, we got three points up, we have the wind at our backs and we don’t go and finish off the game.”

As for Jack Heslin and Keith Beirne’s missed goal chance, Andy agreed it was a key moment:: “Massive, massive moment, not sure if it was a turning point, I’d have to look back on the video but it was a massive moment. You create these goal chances, you dream of Jack being in these positions and it didn’t work out. 

“I’d say it just went wide, Keith dived in to try and get the goal and I’d say he just missed it and it is unfortunate we didn’t get it and finish it off.”

Check out the Leitrim fans cheering on the Green & Gold in Aughrim - GALLERY

It was a mixed day for Leitrim fans in Echelon Aughrim Park on Sunday as the Ladies team booked their place in the Lidl LGFA NFL Division 4 Semi-Finals while the Men's team saw their Allianz NFL Division 4 promotion hopes suffer a massive blow in a 0-15 to 1-9 loss. Observer photographer Willie Donnellan was a busy man with his camera at both games, snapping shots of fans enjoying a rare Leitrim double header ..... see who you can spot!

Moran also felt that once Wicklow got on top, Leitrim struggled to respond: “We didn’t get the ball up the field and any time we did get it up there, we kind of panicked a bit and as soon as they got back level, they had all the momentum. If we had got one score then, it would have helped but we just didn’t get it.”

As for Leitrim’s kickouts coming under pressure in the final minutes, the manager was equally candid: “We’ve good players out on the field and we just expect our guys to go and win that ball. It didn’t happen and for that we’re very disappointed.”

Not one to make excuses, Andy did feel that Sunday’s game was the first of the year where the absence of Ryan O’Rourke was really felt as Wicklow did an excellent job in curtailing the scoring impact of Keith Beirne: “Probably the first time we missed Ryan all year. If you had the two of them there, they’d be ying and yang, Ryan would get 1-2 or 1-3 and Keith would get seven or eight points and it makes it harder to mark Keith. Keith did extraordinarily for us, you can’t ask any more from him.”

Looking ahead for the final two games of the campaign against the top two sides, Andy didn’t try to minimise the impact of Sunday’s loss but stressed Leitrim still had their fate in their own hands: “The beauty about today was that we have two home games and if we win those two games, we get to ten points which would put us in a really, really strong position.

“If Wicklow lost today, they were out. At least we’re still in it but the two games we’ve lost, we feel that we had the winning of both games. We were two points up down in Wexford and we didn’t finish it off, three points up today and we didn’t finish it off so it is just disappointing.

Impressive Leitrim cruise into League Semi-Finals

WICKLOW 0-9 LEITRIM 3-13

“Today was a key game, let’s not dress it up. We’ll go away, obviously we have Laois next at home, which is huge. They’re top of the League and then we have our arch rivals Sligo in the last game. They’re two huge games, they’ll be no problem getting up for them games, the boys know they have the opportunity to go.

“Listen, today you want to win a game, you lose a game of football, you go home disappointed and try to fix it and move on but we’d be very disappointed with that loss.”