Garrity reflects on losing start to the season for Leitrim Ladies

“Green shoots” a sign of things to come for Leitrim, says Garrity, as they suffer an opening round defeat to All-Ireland Junior champions Fermanagh on a scoreline of 3-13 to 2-8.

The Intermediate All-Ireland Champions fielded what was an experimental team for the opening round of the LGFA Lidl Division four league campaign against a near full-strength Fermanagh side yesterday in Kiltubrid.

“We were blooding a few new players and with that context, you know, it can't come as a huge surprise that there was a bit of rustiness and plenty of room for improvement,” said Leitrim manager Jonny Garrity.

Garrity’s team came into the game as favourites but a dominant attacking display from the Erne Women with Bláithín Bogue and Eimear Smyth leading the charge was too much for the green and gold. Despite this the Leitrim women had their purple patches and showed flashes of their potential, bagging two goals in five minutes in the second half, though it wasn’t enough in the end.

“We were playing with our tails up and at that moment all we needed was another possession or two and I think we were looking really dangerous but as I say, you know, it wasn't to be and we've got a wee bit of work to do”

With a raft of 16 new players in the squad this year Garrity says there is room for growth, highlighting that they will need time to get back to the form they were at the end of last year.

“There's a tendency to look back at the end of last season which was a combination of many, many months of really hard work, working on your shape and your training and certain scenarios and it would be really unfair now on this particular group of players to go and compare that with the combination of so much hard work last year,” he said.

Meanwhile, he says that there is space for girls to earn their place in the starting line-up. "Girls earn their chance and the girls that started today earned that opportunity and some of the girls came off the bench and played very well and other girls are showing well at training so when girls do get their opportunity it will be earned."

The loss does not perturb Garrity too much at this early stage of the league, however, he will be looking for more from his troops as they head to Wicklow for the second round of the League. “We know it's not terminal we certainly want to see marked improvement through next week.”

READ MORE: Experimental Leitrim Ladies side begin year with a loss to Fermanagh at home