Newry post mortem led to Carlow victory says Leitrim boss
Steven Poacher highlights Leitrim’s defensive resilience under pressure against Carlow in Tailteann Cup
Leitrim’s demoralising 23 point loss in Netwatch Cullen Park in the final game of the League was the catalyst for Leitrim’s change in fortunes as the team and management took a long hard look at themselves, according to manager Steven Poacher, a process that led to last Saturday’s 0-22 to 1-13 victory over Division 4 champions Carlow.
Speaking after the game, Poacher told the Observer that a lot of serious questions were asked by players and management of themselves in the wake of the 4-22 to 2-5 loss to Carlow: “To be honest with you, that 23 points loss in Netwatch was a dark day for Leitrim football that day and that was the day I think we turned the corner two months ago. We got our heads together that week, we asked a lot of serious questions both of ourselves as a management team, of the players.
“We questioned lads - we questioned their mentality, we questioned their spine, their bottle and listen, since that day, there have been lots of positives. A lot of positives when Down are a very, very experienced group of players and Down have a very, very strong record in Pairc Esler but here this year in Park Sean, we've produced some really good performances and that's another one there today. We knew coming into this game that we were probably further down the road with experience over the last couple of weeks.”
Leitrim’s gameplan last Saturday was to restrict Carlow’s two point threat in the first half before kicking loose themselves in the second half: “Two pointers are massive and we knew if we could curtail their two men, Conor Doyle and Ross Dunphy, then we knew we were going to get a good foothold in the game and that was the big thing. We dealt with the conditions very well and even the last point before the half, three minutes of possession and then a clutch moment from Riordan with ten seconds on the hooter, we worked an awful lot on, that's good coaching.”
The Leitrim boss also highlighted the work that went into curtailing Carlow’s free scoring attack: “Carlow are a very difficult team to work out. Carlow are very unpredictable, they play off the cuff and they'll win games like that but when they come up against a well-coached team like ourselves, ultimately they'll lose games and that's the reality. We knew we would grind them down eventually because that individual spark that they're looking for, they're nearly playing up front with five or six corners forwards and that brings an issue of its own but it also brings trouble too.
But I thought defensively we were amazing today. What are we keeping today, 1-13? That's a team that's been scoring heavily, they've been averaging 28 points a game this year so it's pretty pleasing from that point of view.”
Leitrim’s second half surge featured two point bombs from Paul Honeyman and Killian Gaffey and the manager admitted it was part of the plan but patience was also key: “I said to them at halftime, the game wasn't going to be won in ten minutes, it was going to take time and it took a bit longer than I thought but Paul Honeyman was exceptional at the start of that second half, some of the two's he kicked were amazing and then big Killian can come up and clip them off the deck. We encouraged the boys to have shots, maybe Paul wouldn't have taken those on if we hadn't but we knew that we would take Ben McCarron's kick out apart.
Carlow are a very difficult team to work out. Carlow are very unpredictable, they play off the cuff and they'll win games like that but when they come up against a well-coached team like ourselves, ultimately they'll lose games and that's the reality
“We knew that, we really did know that he was going to struggle because we had our homework done on him. We had our homework done on Ronan Burns last week and we didn't get after him. Ronan Burns destroyed us last week and it's a bit like the old Jimmy McGuinness one where he talks about one of your metrics being down one week, the following week that tends to go up because it is something you work on. We were here Wednesday night and the work we'd done on that kick out press on Wednesday night, we left here near dark because we wanted to make sure that it was right.
“I thought Conor Quinn around the middle of the field was superb and we just dismantled our kick out and that's the game boys, that's the new game- it brings a bit of excitement, brings a bit of chaos around the middle but when we did win the kick out we brought some really good control and I think the last three games we played against real quality opposition helped us.”
Looking ahead, what does the victory mean for his Leitrim team: “We could not exit the Tailteann Cup, we could not be one of the first teams out of the Championship and really and truly boys, league is league and yeah league is important for progression and stuff like that but Championships really matters. Championship are different days, these days are different - you don't see the crowd on the field after the day that we beat Longford here by 10 or 12 points, it was nice but you didn't really get that same feel but Championships are different and that today was sweet.”