Leitrim’s Moran rues not having full panel for clash with Sligo

POOR LEITRIM. The last two weekends have been a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. They lost by nine points to Laois on the Saturday before last at Croke Park in the Allianz Football League Division Four decider. Eight days later they succumbed to a nine-point loss to Sligo at Avant Money Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada, Carrick-on-Shannon.

They conceded 17 scores at Croke Park – a venue they’ve never won in at senior level – and almost as many scores, 15, when losing to

Sligo in front of their faithful fans. This represents back-to-back lows for Leitrim boss Andy Moran, who had been steadily building a managerial profile with Sligo’s neighbours since his appointment in October 2021. Leitrim also had a depleted matchday squad for last Sunday’s fixture, with at least four starters absent, including Donal Casey and Mark Plunkett.

Moran, who cut a dejected figure after the 0-15 to 0-6 defeat to Sligo, said: “We had a number of absentees and we made a big call with Barry [McNulty] and Jack [Foley] when we let them play with the U-20s.

“We prioritised the U-20 fixture because

The number of years since Leitrim last contested a Connacht Senior Championship final (2000).

even if we beat Sligo we would play Galway and then we’d be going into the Tailteann Cup anyway – we don’t have that depth in the panel where we can afford to lose so many players and that definitely affected us.”

He continued: “Sligo are the team that we are trying to mirror. We wouldn’t like the nature of that defeat but the reality is that if we lose three, four or five players then it is a line too much for us as a smaller county.

“But I don’t want to make that the only reason – and that wouldn’t be fair on Sligo – because Sligo were down a few players as well.

“I thought we played well for the first 20 minutes against that wind but after that I think it was very flat from our boys.”

Ex-Mayo player Moran pointed to Leitrim’s recent relentless schedule as well as the emotional rollercoaster of achieving promotion and then playing a national final at GAA headquarters – with only a week to turn the focus to the Connacht GAA Senior Football Championship.

“I look at the likes of Conor Reynolds – he been absolutely outstanding for us but he has been playing with an injury for the last four weeks.

“Our goal this year was to get promoted and then have a good run with the U-20s and in the Tailteann Cup. Those other goals are still achievable.”