Leitrim boss Foley confused and mystified as Minor footballers fail to deliver on potential

New York may be the low point everyone associated with Leitrim football remembers from 2023 but for those who follow the county’s underage team, last Friday in Markievicz Park will come a close second as the Green & Gold collapsed in the second half the Electric Ireland Connacht Minor Shield Final.

Leading by four points at the break, Leitrim would only score two more points as Sligo hit them for 3-7 and it left Leitrim manager Karl Foley struggling to explain how a team who looked so dominant in the first half could fade so dramatically from the game in the second.

Visibly upset, Karl told the Observer “Cannot put my finger on it. We’ve been in this situation a couple of times this year, we’ve spoken about it so much, about the 15 minutes after halftime being crucial. We spoke about it in the dressing room and we came out, we laid down, we stopped playing - I can’t put my finger on it.”

Sligo blow Leitrim away in second half as Green & Gold Minors rue missed chances

SLIGO 3-14 LEITRIM 0-12

What perplexes the former Roscommon minor and Annaduff manager so much is that the talent is obvious in this Leitrim Minor squad but they’ve been unable to deliver on that in all of their games so far this year: “I’m saying it all year, these lads are a talented group of footballers but I don’t know, are they afraid to push on, do they have the confidence or lack of confidence to push on and win these types of games? 

“Until they do that, are we going to be in the same position for time and time to come. Extremely frustrating, extremely annoying and I’m frustrated and annoyed for the young lads themselves - I know the effort they’ve put in, they’re as good as any group of minors I’ve coached at this level but there just seems to be a mentality thing that we just can’t get them over the line.”

Foley’s first thoughts were on consoling his players after the loss but he also stressed to them that lessons must be learned from their experiences in 2023: “I’m gutted for them, I’m going to go in and talked to them, try to lift them but they have to learn from this - it was the first thing I said to them, you have to learn from this and want it. Sligo wanted it more that second half. When they pushed up on us, we sat back and didn’t do the simple things right which we had been doing in the first half. They have to learn but they have to learn quick because at this level, you get punished and you get punished very, very quickly.”

To make the result even more perplexing was the quality of Leitrim’s first half display, a display that was only blighted by a recurring theme of failing to take goal chances: “I don’t know if we have a curse on us, the amount of goal chances we have squandered throughout the championship and again, the same thing happens again. I’m bitterly disappointed.

“Best first half of football we played all year, up there with the Mayo game. You’re drumming it into them at halftime to keep doing what we’re doing but took the foot off the gas completely again and we’ve done it all year where we have not been consistently finishing out games and it is not good enough at this level.”

How do you go about correcting this? “We have to get these lads to a level where they finish out teams and have the confidence to continue. I think we need to sit down with the County Board and see where we’re at with the club scene definitely. At U15 and U17 level, it has to be about 15-a-side football and if that is amalgamating teams, combining teams, that has to be done to get a higher level of football.

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“You look at the quality that is there, there is a quality bunch there - is it going back to club competitions, I don’t know, I’m only here three, four or five months and I’m trying to get to grips with it but what I have here is a talented bunch of footballers who haven’t delivered on their potential and that comes down on me for not getting that potential out of them but we may have to look into a little bit deeper to figure out why they’re not able to finish out games. 

“That’s not for today, that is going to be for a few weeks down the line when we have a review with the county board and see what we need to do to improve things.”