A dream come true for Jack Casey as St Mary's lift title

Exclaiming that the celebrations would last the “whole week”, Jack Casey said St Mary’s dramatic Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC Final victory was a “dream come true”.

“Just unbelievable, a dream come true,” said Jack when asked for his reaction to Sunday’s 0-11 to 1-7 victory over Mohill and revealed that St Mary’s  concentrated on taking it one point at a time in their  second half fightback after they trailed by five points.

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!

“We knew we were going to come back into the game, at halftime we were saying it to ourselves. Get the one point, the next one and the next one, keep pushing on and that’s exactly what we did. They didn’t expect it at all and definitely at the end, we were the team that wanted it the most, 100%.”

The youngest claimed two points in that fightback as he began to have more effect on the game, Jack feeling that the game opened up that bit more: “Definitely the second half, it opened up more, we played more free flowing football - we ran the ball very well. The first half, it was very cramped up, we found it tough.

“We got the frees and that was about it but obviously as games go on, players get more tired, the game opens up. The second half, that was exactly what happened and we took them out.”

Neither did the concession of a goal cause too much alarm in the St Mary’s ranks with Jack crediting Alan Flynn and his backroom team: “Alan all year has been great, even when we concede a goal he has us back, heads up and never give up and keep going, pushing on.”

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

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

They may be a young team with ten players aged 11 players aged 22 or younger starting the final but Jack pointed to the impact of the older members of the squad: “There is no one actually around 25, 26 in their full prime on the team, people are below 22, over 30. 

“The older lads are great, Brian O’Donnell, Barry Butler, James McGrail, Nicholas McWeeney, they all just drive up and give us motivation before games, after games, they are a huge part of the team and kept us going for a good while.”