LEITRIM LOSS WAS HARD TO SWALLOW

JAMIE CLARKE was gutted leaving New York, knowing how close the team he had briefly made his own had come so close to making history.

Losing a three-point lead to Leitrim right at the death at Gaelic Park last May still hurts the Armagh star. Belief, he reflects, was ultimately the winning and losing of that Connacht Championship encounter.

“It was very disappointing that we didn’t win,” said Clarke. “We were by far the better team on the day, we were five points up at one stage.

“It was one of those games where we were kicking on, getting to a five point lead, letting them back in, getting it back to five.

“Eventually we were up three in extra-time and they scored four to win it.

“So from that point of view it was very disappointing not to win.”

Clarke (right) believes there’s huge potential in the Big Apple – but that finding people who can make the right commitment is always the problem.

He said: “You learn a lot out there and you see how things are being managed and done, and from a New York point of view there is a huge opportunity to push on.

“But ultimately people aren’t there to give that commitment and that’s probably the biggest issue.

“If you can get boys who can commit full time to the game, then fair enough, but the problem is that ultimately people aren’t in New York to play football.”