Leitrim boss Poacher slams Murphy comments as derogatory and distasteful
Leitrim manager takes issue with comments made by Carlow counterpart before Saturday’s Tailteann Cup clash
Leitrim manager Steven Poacher has described comments made by his Carlow counterpart Joe Murphy as disrespectful, derogatory and distasteful in the wake of a spiky Tailteann Cup clash last Saturday with the Green & Gold produced a superb display to win 0-22 to 1-13.
As Leitrim footballers were celebrating a superb Tailteann Cup victory over Carlow last Saturday, the victory that came with quite an edge as the Leitrim manager, who had coached the Barrowsiders under Turlough O’Brien, took exception to comments made by the Carlow manager Joe Murphy.
Speaking after the game, the Leitrim boss stated “The reality is that some of the comments pre-game, they were distasteful and they were well documented. When Oisín McConville went down to Carlow in the Championship with his Wicklow team and beat Carlow off the park, Joe Murphy comes out after the game and he speaks about Wicklow, great win but at the end of the day they're going to Leitrim and Waterford next year.
"What's that meant to mean? We'll see how Carlow get on next year in Division 3 but, for me, it's derogatory, it's disrespectful. We've a very young group here and we're building something. Carlow never played a team in the Championship outside of Division 4. We played Sligo who are a very good Division 3 team, we played Down who are Division 2 and we played Galway who are Division 1.”
The memory of the 23 point hammering at the hands of Carlow in March also stung with Poacher irked by comments made to former Carlow player and Leitrim selector Daniel St Ledger along the Leitrim side-line: “Daniel played for Carlow for 15 years, played over 150 games, was fortunate enough to coach them. But just listening to some of the stuff there on the side of the pitch, the behaviour down in Netwatch Cullen Park, you don't forget these things and football's got a funny old way of coming back and biting you in the arse and today it bit Joe and the boys in the arse.”
Murphy’s comments also irked Leitrim’s players with Mark Diffley stating “Call a spade a spade - they were quite disrespectful towards our team at the end of that League game in Carlow. Their manager had a lot of comments to say about us in the papers. He made a comment about Wicklow, that they should enjoy going down to play Waterford and Leitrim next year. Even at the start of the game, they had words to say to us when we were walking around the grass but we knew something was coming and we wanted to put in a performance and we did.”
Leitrim captain Ryan O’Rourke agreed that there was an extra edge to the contest: “We weren't short on motivation this week. Even before the game, there was tension here. We were just walking on the pitch, both teams and both management teams and there was tension but that's exactly what we needed.”
See this week’s Leitrim Observer for more reaction from Saturday’s Tailteann Cup victory.