Manager Ed Burke thought Carlow’s luck had run out in extra time but faith in team's ability saw team to Division 4 title
Lidl NFL Division 4 Final reaction: Manager felt Carlow were the better team but struggled to kill off Leitrim challenge
Ed Burke was standing on the sideline as Leitrim took the lead in extra-time, wondering if his team’s luck had run out in Sunday’s Lidl LGFA NFL Division 4 Final but the Carlow manager always felt that his team would have the answer to whatever the Green & Gold threw at them.
Speaking to the Observer after their dramatic 3-13 to 4-9 win over Leitrim in Grant Heating St Brendan’s Park in Birr, a delighted Burke was thrilled with his team’s performance: “I suppose we're after the game now, I don't think it's unfair to say that I think we were the better team by a good bit on the day, and Leitrim's perseverance really just kept them in it the whole time.
“We couldn't get that little extra bit away from Leitrim but I thought the football we played was super. We made a couple of mistakes throughout the game but we said at halftime and the end of normal time ‘girls, just do the same thing and we're going to win the game’.”
The Carlow boss admitted he thought the game was gone when Leah Fox edged Leitrim in front in extra-time, paying huge tribute to Leitrim’s resilience: “I honestly thought our luck ran out. I said to myself, first half, second half, first half of extra time, I said our luck has run out. We're the better team and we're just not getting ahead, we can't keep it going.
“I came to Carlow five years ago and for two years, when we went down by a point, we couldn't get back ahead. Now, it doesn't matter where we are, we've kind of got that belief in our ability and we just drive on. This is only the start of our year. I think we're the only team who's men's and women's are winning every single game in the National League.
“The first half, we were incredible but Leitrim are a battle-hardened team. You see what happened in the semi-final to get over Sligo in extra time, so I thought our luck had run out when they got the goal back and it was an extra time.
“Over the years, we've built that mentality that if you want to beat us, you're going to have to really, really put us away. Leitrim got ahead by that one point at that time, they needed to put us away then or we were going to fight back.”
Carlow’s possession based game caused Leitrim problems and Burke revealed that the tactics were divided with the Green & Gold in mind, referencing the group stage game between the counties: “It was definitely in our mind. We went up to Leitrim the first day to play our lovely possession-based football, just to see what Leitrim would do.
“We knew they'd hold their structure so then we said today we could hold the ball but play with a little bit more gusto if it was on. I think we did that really well in the first half. We held onto the ball and if there was a gap, we were gone, we were gone.
“We don't want to do that every day, but the team in front of us dictates what we do. If they want to sit in there, we'll find the gap. If they want to come out, we'll push them over and back and we'll burn them because there's very few teams who are, fitness-wise and speed-wise, are going to actually match us.
“Today, Cliodhna and Sarah did all the scoring but against Offaly the last day, I think we scored 3-8 from play and one point of it was from Sarah Doyle and so it's great that when they're on form, they're winning the game. If they're not on form, other players are popping up.
“Our Carlow team is a really, really hard team to mark because Aibha Kiernan scores two goals in most games and could have had three or four goals today but in fairness to Leitrim, the keeper made some excellent saves. At the end, even when we're holding the ball, I think Leitrim were out on their feet. We were obviously very, very tired but I think we had a little bit more if we wanted to push on.”
Burke also felt that the quality on show in Birr more than stacked up against the other three Divisional finals on Saturday: “I watched all other three league finals and, alright I'll be biased, but I think that was one of the best one out of a lot of them because some of them, I mightn't be sitting down to watch them a second time, I might sit down to watch this a second time.
“I think all over the pitch we've got serious footballers. There's players on the bench who have played for Carlow many times and just can't get into the team because of the really, really good football that we're playing inside of it and we've got footballers all over the place.”
The Carlow manager wants his team to push on and believes they can hold their own at a higher level: “We want to drive on now and push on in Leinster and hopefully into Croke Park and win that Ireland title. I think if we go out like that today against most teams, I would fancy our chances.”