Savouring glory at long last with Aughnasheelin

Leitrim IFC Final - Sunday, October 8, 2017

‘THIS IS IT LADS!

‘WE ARE ABOUT TO RUN ON TO THAT FIELD...

‘AND BE GREETED BY 1,500 PEOPLE FROM OUR OWN PARISH! ‘SUCK IT UP!

‘DON’T LET THE NERVES GET TO YOU!

‘THIS IS WHAT WE CAME HERE FOR!’

We’re held up in the tunnel under the stand at Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada in Carrick-on-Shannon, the home of Leitrim football.

Fantastic turnout as Martin McHugh launches his autobiography "Born to Save" - GALLERY

Half of the county seem to be packed into the stand above us, waiting for what is about to unfold. We have a job to do... Leitrim Gaels are in our way. I’m roaring at my Aughnasheelin teammates, because I can see the nerves starting to build. This is a time for composure.

Our manager David Casey has given us the team-talk in the dressing-room, but it went on a bit too long. So we’ve missed our allotted time to run out onto the pitch.

We’ve had to wait.

IT ISN’T IDEAL.

We’ve waited for this day for long enough. We were chomping at the bit to get out there and do battle. We eventually arrive on the field to a huge cheer. I haven’t experienced this for a very long time... and it feels amazing. We are ready.

There is no turning back now.

These are my own people... my own parish, all my friends and neighbours roaring us on for the 2017 Leitrim Intermediate Championship final from the stands as 15 of us go through our final warm-up... before standing together as one for Amhrán na bhFiann.

This day has been building up since we qualified three weeks ago... it seems like an eternity. The match just could not come quickly enough.

The excitement is rife. Flags and banners are all over our tiny village in east Leitrim, just over the border from Cavan... where everyone knows everyone else. The club were champions without me in 2008, but haven’t been in the final since. I won a Longford Senior Championship with Clonguish in 2009 against Dromard... the year I was sick with testicular cancer.

I was just too ill to play in that final, but I was part of the team and still had my role off the pitch. Even though I had lost my hair, and chemotherapy had knocked the stuffing out of me. The legendary Paul Barden’s last-gasp free won us that title by a point. That was after a replay! And he insisted I go and lift the cup with him. In hindsight it was great to just be there. But it still hurt that I couldn’t play.

THIS IS DIFFERENT with Aughnasheelin.

I’m 47 at this stage of my life, training with lads over 25 years younger than me... fighting together for a county final... again! And I’m going to be starting in goals.

This is where I grew up. The people are very close. We all know everybody else’s business, but we are always there for one other in our little community.

The funny thing is, I had no intention of playing this season at all. I went down to the field to do a bit of training with the lads one evening... for the craic, as you do. One of the selectors, Richie Fitzpatrick, asked me to help out with the goalkeepers and show them a few things. So I promptly obliged. Dean Flanagan and Sean Mahon were the goalkeepers, and Dean was first  choice between the sticks.

I did a bit of training myself as well, just to gather a bit of fitness while I was there, and as the weeks went on.... f**k, I was really starting to enjoy it. The bug was back... not that I ever lost it! I went to the games togged, with no intention of playing.

Before fate took hold.

Dean got hurt in the first-half of a league game just two or three matches into the campaign, so next thing Sean – our second-choice keeper – was between the posts.

You couldn’t have written it, but Sean pulled his hamstring.

I had arrived at the game to help the lads... not even as a third-choice keeper. Next, I was being told to warm-up.

‘Will ye f**k off will ye...

‘... it’ll take me half an hour to warm-up!’ came my snappy response. There were still about 20 minutes to go in the game. But in I went... and we won.

I played between the posts for two more league games after that, because the lads weren’t back from injury. Dean had a bad hip flexor injury. I was asked to hang around.

The fact that I was pushing 50 didn’t seem to bother anyone else, but I was starting to get a bit nervous. Mainly because of the age-gap. Still, I played the next league game against Fenagh ... and we won again. By then, I had realised the game had gotten so fast, and I had gotten incredibly slow. It was time to start extra training. I began pushing myself more and more.

It was no cakewalk. I found it really tough getting back to that level, and I really struggled. I often had to remind myself I was 47 ... not 27 anymore.

Martin was born to save - and to talk!

THE BIG INTERVIEW

John Connolly chats with Martin McHugh ahead of the launch of his autobiography “Born to Save” next Sunday, September 11, in The Landmark Hotel and finds the former Leitrim keeper just as engaging and entertaining as he always has been as he looks back over a storied career and life

WHEN I WAS with Leitrim in the 90s it was a different focus altogether, because I was working hard for myself to try and get that No 1 jersey against Thomas Quinn and Martin Prior.

I made myself Leitrim’s first-choice goalkeeper, but that was county football when I was in my early-twenties. When we won the Connacht title in 1994, I was 23 going on 24.

This was intermediate club football with another 23 years on the clock. But I loved the buzz and attention as it grew all the time and I had an extra pep in my step at training.

Word started spreading at that point that I was back at it with my home club, and I revelled in the limelight. I always had done, whether it was with Aughnasheelin  ...   Clonguish  ...   or Leitrim.

People were looking at me, looking at this idiot at 47 years old trying to win a county title. But I just loved doing what I was doing as well ... back playing in goals. After a few weeks training the lads and training myself, I really started getting fit again. The way the Leitrim Intermediate Championship is laid out, you go into a group, with four games followed by a quarter-final, semi-final and final.

We won all four group games, and Dean was back in the team after recovering from his hip injury. I could see he was under pressure, and he couldn’t really handle it well.

He made silly mistakes, but we got away with them.

I was there to help him, so I would speak to him at half-time – telling him to relax and take control. But it’s easier said than done. The last match against Fenagh was a dead-rubber because we were already through, but we wanted to go through the whole championship unbeaten.

Dean was under pressure in that game, and we were losing by two points. His kicks were going astray, he was making silly errors and, next thing, I was told to warm-up again as the management lost patience. My old competitive streak had long returned.

I knew this was my chance.

It was only the group stage, and we were qualified, but this was it! I was doing my warm-up on the sideline ... jumping and leaping as usual.

I'm hoping my story gives hope to people and light at the end of the tunnel

Leitrim 1994 hero Martin McHugh recounts his battle with cancer as he launches his autobiography on Sunday evening in The Landmark Hotel in Carrick-on-Shannon

THEN I GOT this sudden nervousness across me, because this was still a championship match... and I was pushing 50.

I only got around 12 minutes to prove myself and, as I arrived into the goalmouth, I said a little prayer to whoever would listen.

I fired one monster of a kick-out to Conor Cullen, who caught it and stuck it over the bar. And we scored again ... to win 3-9 to 2-9. We still had our unbeaten record. I was in goal and I never looked back.

Every day in the life of a goalkeeper, someone is breathing down your neck waiting to take that jersey off you. That never changes.

I had to keep my head down. I had to work harder than anyone because of my age ... make sure I kept my place for the big one. And tick that box with my beloved home club.

I would get the lads to take shots on me ... so I had to dive left, right ... get up again and repeat it over and over ... for a few minutes to keep myself sharp and on my toes. There was literally no time for rest at this stage.

Sometimes, I’d be winded from jumping a few feet in the air to make a save, and crashing to the ground again on my shoulders. I was pretty well juiced by the end of it! Then I would practice kick-outs; not just kicking it long and hoping for the best. Those days are gone.

It’s all about finding a teammate, going long or short. Winning your own kickouts is now paramount. Sometimes you need motivation to do better. For me, it was the spotlight and the attention I was getting. I had always loved it. I used that to my advantage.

AS I AM roaring at the lads in the tunnel, I am nervous too. I’m nervously focused, if that makes sense. The game goes according to plan, but we made a few mistakes as usual. We win a penalty and miss it ... and they kick a few bad wides too. It’s tight. Leitrim Gaels cop on to my kick-out strategy and I adjust, but I can still feel the nerves filtering through the team.

Our forwards are missing simple scores ...  and our backs concede silly frees. At half-time we are 0-9 to 0-5 ahead. I keep my mouth shut and stay focused. Our manager David does all the talking.

Midway through the second-half, and we are ahead by three points. Our work-rate really went up. I can feel the excitement building inside me. I know we are on the verge of winning. But I tell myself out loud to calm down. With 10 minutes left, another surge of excitement filters through me.

‘Jesus, we are going to win it!’

Then I am telling myself to calm down again... before the nerves come back. It is a vicious cocktail, and it comes back to bite me. I am standing over a kick-out... but I have nobody to aim at. Leitrim Gaels have every man out in front, and I am getting ready to take the kick. The ref blows me up for time wasting!

The lads on the sideline are going absolutely mental. Luckily, we manage to clear the ball.

Another kick-out!

Cormac Sammon is running from the stand side of the pitch, right across to the other side and I hit him on the move ... and play the ball right into his chest. He was a good 60 yards away!

He turns and plays it into one of our forwards ... the ball goes over the bar. It’s near the end of the game. The Gaels start losing the head, with time and the scoreboard against them. They are going for their first title, but the cracks are starting to appear as we close in our first since 2008.

Our playmaker Barry McWeeney gets a lot of hassle and the Gaels are taking the mick at this stage. Gareth Foley is the referee. He’s a good mate of mine. We had a little chat before the game. It had no bearing on the result, but you never know when a decision could go your way when the result hangs in the balance.

Martin McHugh's story is one for the ages

Leitrim 1994 goalkeeper launches his autobiography next Sunday, September 11, in the Landmark Hotel in Carrick-on-Shannon at a special free event

Things are getting heated.

I roar ... ‘WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!’ after a particularly heavy hit on Barry McWeeney. I don’t know if Gareth hears me, but there are people at home eating their dinner in Carrick who definitely might have. Barry gets his free and we send it over the bar to go two in front once more.

We kick another wide. But we win the kick-out. Now there is more argy-bargy. I think Gareth has enough of all this s***e.

He blows for full-time. We win by two points ... 0-12 to 0-10.

I fall to my knees. I cry like a baby.

It all just comes flowing out ... between beating cancer twice ... training as hard as I did with my age and body firmly against me.

EVEN GOING BACK to 1994, I was that man in the middle of the goalmouth being swamped by people getting all the claps on the back when we conquered Connacht with Leitrim ...  for one of the biggest upsets of all time.

Between that famous day and this one, the raw emotion of winning something major really takes over. When the final whistle went, all of those emotions from those nerves and excitement came pouring out in floods of tears.

And most importantly, this is my first Leitrim Championship medal after all those years.

It’s another unforgettable day in my life as a goalkeeper ...

• MARTIN MCHUGH'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY "BORN TO SAVE" IS AVAILABLE FROM ALL GOOD BOOKSHOPS AND ALSO ON AMAZON AS AN EBOOK €9.99, PAPERBACK €20 AND HARDBACK €25