Potential is there for Leitrim Gaels to win title says manager Paul Prior

Leitrim Gaels have the potential to win a Senior championship and will eventually break down the door according to manager Paul Prior in the aftermath of Saturday’s Connacht Gold SFC Semi-Final loss at the hands of Mohill.

The Leitrim Gaels manager was clearly deeply disappointed but stressed his team have set a standard that they must match in the future: “There definitely is the potential to win a Senior championship, they need to realise that themselves - they won’t today because they’ve lost to the same team that beat them last year.

Two top knocked out as Mohill & St Mary's Kiltoghert set up League final rematch in Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC Final

St Mary's beat Fenagh St Caillins 5-4 on penalties after 0-12 apiece draw while goals from Keith Beirne & Ronan Kennedy see Mohill to a 2-10 to 1-0 victory over Leitrim Gaels

“But when they realise, this is their standard and they have to keep that up and banging on that door because eventually they are going to break through it.”

Analysing the game, Paul felt his team’s inexperience at this level may have caught them out: “Mohill have been in so many finals and semi-finals and won it so it is a big ask. We did ourselves proud out there, we couldn’t have asked any more but maybe a little bit of inexperience.

“I know we were there last year but a little bit of inexperience at times but we’ll keep coming. We were probably a bit slow to start, probably gave a bit too much respect at the start, I don’t know but we roared back into it in the second half. We had chances there, the goal chance Daniel O’Sullivan had there at the start of the second half - if that had gone in straight from the throw-in but we couldn’t ask any more, they gave it everything.

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“I think we had them on the ropes there for a while but when it was tight we gave away a few tight free kicks that got them back into it so if we had just got two or three ahead of them when we were in the lead, it might have been different but we can’t ask for any more.”

The Gaels hopes were hit by a serious looking injury for Stephen Goldrick  before halftime: “Looks like a fairly serious one, some of his frees, the one out in the right hand corner, were brilliant. He is a talisman for us as well and hopefully, he gets back to us as quickly as he can.”