St Mary's not there to enjoy big day - they're out to win it all says Flynn ahead of Leitrim SFC
As declarations of intent go, Alan Flynn doesn’t hold back when he proclaims that his young St Mary’s Kiltoghert side are fully intent on winning next Sunday’s Connacht Gold Leitrim Senior Football Championship title.
The consensus among fans is that this final may be a little too soon for a St Mary’s side featuring 10 or 11 players 21 years old or younger and another in Mark Diffley, just a year older, as they face a more experienced and older Mohill side.
But it is not a school of thought that Alan Flynn subscribes to. Asked about the remarkable age profile of his team, Alan boldly states his team’s ambitions: “They are quite young but the age profile of a lot of teams are quite young.
“These lads are fit as fiddles and I think their game understanding is improving with every match they play and a lot of them have played together for a good many years at underage level. We certainly won’t be coming to the county final just to enjoy the occasion, we’re there to win it and hopefully, we will give a really good account of ourselves.”
St Mary’s started out their campaign with a hard bump against Sunday’s opponents Mohill, a comfortable 1-14 to 0-9 victory coming just six days after the Carrick men had pushed Mohill to a one point victory in the Masonite Division 1 Final.
That rocked St Mary’s but Flynn’s team rediscovered their momentum during a competition that caught the eye of the Galway native: “I think it has been really, really good. I think it has progressed well over the course of the summer and that is a testament to the teams. It has been pretty tight and today was obviously very, very tight.”
Indeed, Alan believes St Mary’s passage through the knockout stages underlines the competitive nature of the Senior grade in Leitrim: “Obviously against Aughawillan in the Quarter-Final, we got on a bit of roll to be fair to them but we had a huge amount of work done going into the Aughawillan game. Based on the information I had myself and what the lads would have said, they have a huge regard for Aughawillan.
“Looking at the semi-final, Fenagh was always going to be a huge challenge. The lads would have come up against Fenagh a lot in underage especially so that was always going to be a tough game.”
If the victory over Fenagh in the semi-final after a penalty shootout does one thing, it emphasises that you’ve got to grab your chance when it is presented to you, a point the St Mary’s manager fully agrees with: “Of course we want to win it, Finals are hard to get to and the lads would agree with that.
“They’re not easy to get to, the standard is strong but we will be focusing on ourselves. To be honest with you, the turnaround times here are pretty short and it is the way to go, to concentrate on yourself, make improvements, keep doing the things you do well and hopefully that will bring you to a good place.”