St Mary's manager Alan Flynn points to old fashioned heart & character in Senior Final victory

For all the tactics, schemes and game plans, sometimes it comes down to old fashioned heart and character. At least that is what St Mary’s manager Alan Flynn believes after his team’s 0-11 to 1-7 victory over Mohill last Sunday.

“I have to say it might sound a little bit old fashioned and cliched but there was a lot of heart and character there in the second half, there were balls on the ground to be won and we were going after it,” was Alan’s assessment of how his troops recovered from a five point deficit to pull off their shock victory over Mohill.

Wild celebrations as St Mary's Kiltoghert claim Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC title - GALLERY

St Mary's Kiltoghert produced a stunning comeback as they recovered from a five point deficit to claim the Connacht Gold Leitrim Senior Championship title in dramatic fashion on Sunday, their 0-11 to 1-7 victory over Mohill seeing them lift the Fenagh Cup for the first time since 2013 and Observer photographer Willie Donnellan was there to capture the wild celebrations that followed .... see who you can spot!

That character was typified by a player like Jack Barnes who Alan says was desperately unlucky to miss out on a starting place but made a huge impact off the bench, his first touch to win a Mohill kickout and set up a point for Jack Casey. “Jack was very unlucky not to start and to be honest with you, the way he took it, it was a measure of him. 

“That chat on Saturday made me a little more buoyant going into the weekend because of the way he accepted it, he knew he had a huge role to play. My message to him was you’re coming in here Jack and I need somebody with legs who can actually get into attacking positions and it worked out very well. But his attitude, and it is all about attitude, and he had a really positive attitude.”

The soon to be Offaly Senior team coach admitted he was very nervous near the end as Mohill hunted a winning goal: “Of course you are worried, a slippery ball goes in and even that last shot and what could you say? 

“You couldn’t say a bad word against our lads if it did go in because they did everything they could. I’ve been there on days when that has gone in and that is why you live for these moments because it doesn’t always work.”

Forwards normally get the plaudits but Alan highlighted the impact his defensive unit had in restricting the dangerous Keith Beirne and Jordan Reynolds: “Keith and Jordan, you give them an inch and they’re going to take a mile and we had to be very, very good and I thought we were very focused today.

St Mary's young guns becomes kings of Leitrim as second half blitz overwhelms Mohill

ST MARY'S KILTOGHERT 0-11 MOHILL 1-7

“Our defence was outstanding - that’s been the bedrock for us all year. I’ve said our backline is as good as I’ve come across and I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with teams with a lot of teams in Connacht and I think they’re as good as what’s around and I think each one of them have a big future. 

“Obviously a couple of them are around a little bit longer than others but in saying that, the way they were applying themselves, the way they were going after the ball, I thought they were very disciplined in terms of their tackling and workrate.”

Despite going five points down, Alan always felt that St Mary’s were right in the mix, even if the conditions and a poor use of possession meant it didn’t show on the scoreboard: “I think to be fair, we had plenty of possession in the first half, we didn’t use it particularly well when we started crossing into their half and getting towards their 45, I thought we turned over the ball a little too easily and I think it is fair as well, the goal was a little bit unlucky. 

“Poor Sean got caught on the ground, it was very slippy around the goal and a five point margin was probably not reflective of how far ahead they were of us at the time.”

Conditions also played a part in how Alan approached the game with a far more pressing game in the second half as they pushed up on the Mohill kickout to great effect: “The wind was kinda strange, it was moving around a bit so you couldn’t say it was behind you - we felt that the key was to try and get an extra bit of pace into the game, a bit of intensity and then to start going after the kickout. 

“We did that in the second half, we couldn’t really do it in the first half because it was a little bit against us and if we had gone in a little too heavy in the first half, it could have gone over the top of us and we’d have been caught out. 

“We felt that we could go after it that bit more in the second half and our positioning was quite good and we turned over the ball. We had more possession and we used it a little bit better and that was a lot of it.”

Check out our fans gallery from Leitrim Senior and Minor Finals double header - GALLERY

Observer photographer Willie Donnellan was a very busy man on Sunday at the Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC and Newtowngore Engineering U17 Division 1 Finals, taking hundreds of photos of fans enjoying the action in Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada .... see who you can spot!

Observer photographer Willie Donnellan was a very busy man on Sunday at the Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC and Newtowngore Engineering U17 Division 1 Finals, taking hundreds of photos of fans enjoying the action in Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada .... see who you can spot!

Control was key to how St Mary’s approached that second half: “We have a few things over the last few months in the championship and one of them coming in today was we were going to be climbing a big mountain here and we had a few big steps to make. We were very controlled at halftime, it was about chipping away, chipping away in the second half.”

With a new coaching gig with Liam Kearns’ Offaly footballers and a Connacht Senior Club campaign on the horizon, Alan is looking forward to St Mary’s representing Leitrim: “A busy man but I could be doing worse things I suppose. We will go to London in four weeks time, that game was a draw and we’re keeping a close eye there. We have our homework done and we’ll certainly be going out to prove to people that Leitrim football is in a strong place.

Fans out in force for Leitrim GAA County Final double header - GALLERY

Our third and final gallery of Willie Donnellan's fan photos from Sunday's Leitrim GAA County Final double header in Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada ... see who you can spot!

“Andy Moran is doing a great job, he has given a buoyancy to the whole thing and you had two teams really going after it today. Ballinamore were outstanding champions last year and they really put it up to Mountbellew last year. We need to build on that and we’ll be trying to put in a big performance.”