Delighted Liam says Lancashire will treat every Lory Meagher Cup game as a “final”

Lancashire may just be off the back of an impressive 4-15 to 1-15 victory over Leitrim in Shane McGettigan Park but manager Liam Knocker, as delighted as he undoubtedly was, is determined not to let their momentum stall as he states Lancashire cannot afford to lose any game in the Lory Meagher Cup.

“Absolutely delighted” was Liam’s initial reaction to Lancashire’s nine point win but he stresses his team must drive on if they want to maintain their momentum: “We’re treating every game as a final because, obviously, you can’t afford to lose, you can’t afford to slip up. One or two losses and you’re probably out of it.

Mistakes cost Leitrim says manager Olcan Conway as hurlers in last chance saloon

“It is a long auld trek over when your backs are against the wall and you’re not really playing for anything, it is hard to keep boys motivated and coming back to you so it is great to get another two points on the board.”

What most pleased Liam was the fact Lancashire had managed to get a win over the home side, a team they had struggled against when visiting Leitrim: “Leitrim is a hard place to come, I can’t remember the last time we won, it might have been six, seven years ago. We know what they’re about, they’re a well organised team, well drilled and they play very well.

“They’ve three or four really effective hurlers in Murray, Martin Feeney but they know what they’re about and they impose themselves on the game so a great win for us, we were able to turn them over with a lot of goals.”

With the teams level at halftime, Liam agreed that the halftime team talk saw him reinforce a few principles for his team who had missed quite a few chances in the first period: “It was part of the halftime team talk, to recycle the ball, not to be afraid to keep hold of the ball and pass it back.

“Snap shots are never going to work are they? The top counties can’t do it so why are we trying to do that? But we rectified that in the second half.”

Strength in depth was another factor for Lancashire with a strong contribution off the bench: “It is probably down to our team panel, we have 26 on the team sheet but we have 33 at training. There are good players there, you look around and there are good players to come in, they’re effective, they’re going to get goals and points - years gone by we didn’t have that strength in depth but you saw it today that we were able to drive on when the chips were down.”

Five Leitrim players named on Lidl LGFA Division 4 Team of the Year

Next up for Lancashire is a visit to Kingspan Breffni Park on Saturday to take on newly crowned Division 3B League champions Cavan and Liam admits it is a tough challenge, even if he is looking forward to it!

“We’ve got Cavan in Cavan, they seemed to have driven over the last few years, they’ve obviously got good coaches in and they’re doing well, they’re top of the table for a reason. They’re going to be an absolute challenge for us - we’ll try and get another one and be even happier.”