No excuses from Moran as Leitrim rue missed chances in New York defeat

Andy Moran didn’t try to make excuses in the wake of Leitrim’s loss to New York last Saturday evening in Gaelic Park but did feel that the Connacht SFC clash was a game that the Green & Gold had left behind them due to missed chances.

Speaking to Darren Mulvey on Shannonside, Andy said “You can only talk about the result really, a massive result for Leitrim GAA, massively disappointing day for us in Leitrim GAA. I’m the manager and it was a game we should have won, we definitely should have won the game, we had so many goal chances and we just didn’t put them away and gave New York the chance. 

“All credit to New York, hats off, that’s the way an upset happens - they took their chance on penalties and that’s it. I think the most frustrating thing for us and for all the Leitrim people who were here was they could see how well we played at times. 

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“I actually think we had seven goal chances, we just didn’t take them and if you don’t take them at this level, you get punished and we just didn’t take them.”

The Leitrim manager felt it was a missed opportunity but didn’t want to take away from New York’s historic achievement: “It is bitterly disappointing but again, Joan and all the guys here in New York GAA have done great work, they deserve this night, we’re not going to take it away from them but from a Leitrim perspective, we are just broken to be honest. 

“We were on the right side of the draw, we had a huge chance of making a Connacht Final and we just didn’t get over the line tonight.”

Moran also spoke to the The Long Hall Podcast (LINK) after the game with the full interview below. The Long Hall Podcast features all things Irish America with interviews with inspiring immigrants and renowned Irish personalities.

.@M_Dorgan spoke to #Leitrim Manager #AndyMoran after his side's loss to #NewYork Saturday. ️@LeitrimGAA @NewYorkGAA #NewYorkGAAhttps://t.co/BoseXxamZz

— The Long Hall Podcast and Website (@thelonghallpod) April 11, 2023

Leitrim had a lot of debutants on the night with Moran feeling  that the bench made a good impact when introduced: “We had Adam Reynolds, we had Barry McNulty that made his championship debut tonight and all of them performed admirably. I thought actually that our subs were absolutely brilliant when they came on but at the end of the day, we’re going home with a loss and we have to assess that and move on.”

As for the future, Moran said that he would be assessing everything in the aftermath of the loss: “I just love these lads, I think they’re a great bunch,  the Leitrim people have been great to me but after that, you’ve got to go away and assess, make sure that everything is the right thing to do and we’ll do the same.”

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Moran said his team knew the scale of the challenge they were facing before a ball was kicked: “We were under no illusions coming out. We knew it was going to be a tough game. What we would really be disappointed with is we had enough chances to win two games and we just didn’t take them.

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“You leave New York in the game and all of a sudden you get clipped at the end of it on penalties. Very disappointing. Cunningham had a very good game in goals and it’s just the nature of an upset that those things don’t fall your way.”

Neither did Moran seek to blame the effects of travel as a number of Leitrim players went down with cramp, attributing it more to the artificial surface rather than travel: “It’s the pitch that factors into the cramping. We’re used to a grass field. But I just thought we played well enough to get a win, that’s the really disappointing thing about it.

“We did some really good stuff, we created some really good goal chances. The stuff we worked on kind of worked and we just didn’t take those chances.”