Character pushed St Mary's to victory says Man of the Match Paul Keaney

In a game that came down to a matter of inches, Man of the Match Paul Keaney pointed to the character in the St Mary’s Kiltoghert camp that proved vital in their Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC Final victory, writes John Connolly.

Coming from five points down showed the mentality of St Mary’s: “We were down at halftime and we really had to fight back. I feel like we deserved the win in the end, we showed great character to get over the line and to hold Mohill off.”

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!

The memory of the 2020 Final was central to St Mary’s display: “We came in a point up at halftime in that 2020 Final and let the foot off the pedal and we ended up losing. We knew if we let the foot off the pedal for even five minutes today, it was going to cost us. 

“Maybe we did  in that we conceded 1-2 in the space of five minutes but we showed great character to turn it around, to fight back and get ahead.”

Not one to trumpet his own achievements, greeting the Man of the Match award with a simple “Yeah, it is a nice one to get”, Paul preferred to highlight the words of James McGrail in the dressing room at halftime.

“James said to us at halftime ‘we get the first point, we get the second point’ and we just go point by point by point and see where we are. That’s what we did and luckily we were there. Then we were two points up and it's let's just hold onto this. It was nervous at the end  but I feel like we dealt with them well, kept our composure and tried to play out from the back. It just worked out in the end.”

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

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

Next up is a Connacht Club Championship in London and Paul is looking forward to it: “I think we’re going over to London so that’ll be great for the squad and great for the town really. We definitely will enjoy the celebrations.”