Garrity points to Leitrim’s resolve in terrible conditions

Leitrim’s resolve and ability to grind out the victory pleased manager Jonny Garrity as he highlighted the resolve his players showed after Sunday’s hard fought 4-6 to 0-15 victory over Wicklow in Ballinamore in the second round of the Lidl LGFA Division 4 campaign.

“It wasn’t a performance that we will look back on and be delighted by,” admitted the Leitrim manager, “but I think the important thing was that in the weather conditions, it was a case of battling and fighting for everything that we got and in the end, we got the scores that we needed to get the victory and that’s the most important thing.”

Conditions were awful which may have contributed to uncommon Leitrim handling errors, says the manager (pictured inset): “The wind and the rain in our faces leads to some handling errors, it leads to making life a bit more difficult in terms of making decisions. When you are comfortable in the game and the momentum swings to the other team, those mistakes are even more common and it was important that we saw it out in the end, and we did.”

St Brigid's Ladies celebrate successful 2023 at Dinner Dance - GALLERY

St Brigid's Ladies celebrated an amazing 2023 when they claimed the Intermediate Championship, Division 2 League, Spring League and reached the Connacht Junior Club Final last Saturday January 13, in Kilronan Castle. Observer photographer Willie Donnellan was there to capture the occasion ... see who you can spot!

Even with Wicklow closing the gap to a goal on a couple of occasions, Jonny felt that Leitrim held the visitors at bay: “It got back to the goal and you were feeling maybe very uncomfortable at that stage but very quickly after they brought it back to three points, we got the score to bring it back to four and for the vast majority of the game, there was those two scores between the teams and we would have certainly taken that before the match, we’re delighted to get the points on the board.”

However, he admits that Wicklow’s tally of 15 points is a concern but was delighted that Leitrim’s goal scoring ability proved so crucial: “We didn’t envisage losing so many scores and that’d be a concern but on the day that it is, goals win games and we got the goals at really good times over the course of the first half. 

“Leah’s second goal came at a crucial moment and it was a fantastic individual finish, a massive score in the game. Those goals gave us the foothold that we needed at that time and they kept picking away. 

“You have to give credit to Wicklow, Wicklow are a very good team, they’ll be disappointed coming here and not getting the victory - they would have come here expecting to win it so when all is said and done, we battled well, got the goals at the right time and saw it out. We’re happy but we know we’ve lots to work on.”

After vigorously campaigning for it last year, Garrity is delighted that Leitrim have a full programme of League games this year with division 4 the only division with semi-finals: “I won’t complain about that because then people will say I complain no matter what. It is better to have the games. Nevertheless, it is an intense run of games, seven in eight weeks initially and that’s before semi-finals and final if we’re lucky enough to be there. 

“We all want to be playing games. The girls are training and committing to intense work and training with us and away from us to be at their best, they want to play games and we want to utilise our panel and this gives us the opportunity to do that.”

Garrity is also leaving the door open for players to come into the panel: “We’re probably one or two short from what we had today so that is almost us at full tilt. Obviously, some of the girls are at different stages, coming back in from extended breaks. The doors are not closed on others either, it is early in the year but this is us now and we’re very much working with what we have now.”

Goals crucial as Leitrim ride their luck against impressive Wicklow

LEITRIM 4-6 WICKLOW 0-15

Leitrim face a trip to Derry next Sunday and their manager is not taking anything for granted against Derry: “It’ll be totally dependent on the performance we put in, I wouldn’t like to count any chickens if we went out and gave as much ball away as we did in that second half for instance. I know that they’ve got a very, very good new management in place and they haven't been in there that long. 

“They’ll be a team to watch out for, a team that I would suspect will get stronger game by game and there was only a kick of the ball in it in their first two matches against two good teams. I think somebody will probably be caught by Derry this year and we have to be really careful that it is not us so it has to be a good performance and we’ll be working all week to ensure that it is.”