GAELIC GAMES:MICKEY MORAN is huddled up against the elements, his woolly hat almost pulled down over his eyes, as he tries to explain why such an anticipated day in Leitrim failed to go to plan.
“Don’t be too critical,” he suggests, knowing their main failure was being unable to repeat the performance shown against Sligo three weeks ago.
“I have never seen any game repeated the next day, whether it was good or bad. Things change. There was an awful breeze, and I thought we were doing really well at 0-4 to 0-1. We gave the ball away for the goal, which happened last year as well, and happened the previous year. That put us under severe pressure.
“I still thought we had a couple of chances. We just lost a little bit of heart at that stage. We shot from too far out.”
Leitrim’s limitations are often partly explained by their limited numbers, and Moran was sent looking for back-up early on: “We don’t have a wild lot of numbers. Tomás Beirne has been outstanding for us all year. Daniel Lowe has been outstanding all year. Tomás just had an off day, Daniel had a pulled muscle in his leg and was struggling. We were under severe pressure after losing those two. Any team would be.
“Roscommon took advantage of us and they had the midfield. I don’t think we should have been 12 points off there, but the goal just shattered the boys’ confidence and we never recovered from that.”
In contrast Roscommon’s confidence soared after the goal, and manager Fergal O’Donnell was very impressed by the way Donie Shine finished it.
“Donie’s goal was the cushion, and he finished it great. Matches like this, when it is wet, goal chances are important to finish. So I suppose you have to say we’re happy to be back into a Connacht final. People will say it wasn’t a high standard of football, but the key for us was that we got a good start.
“I suppose some people would question Donie’s and Senan Kilbride’s work rate at times, but in fairness to them they did work hard there. The breeze was a factor. It was hard for players coming out. The difference in the second half was we had the lead.
“Players are always up for it in the first 10 or 15 minutes, you are leaving the dressingroom on about tackling and pressure. We were happy with the work rate. We were probably disappointed with some of the turnovers out the field but definitely I was happy with the work rate inside.”
O’Donnell gives the impression that Roscommon’s Connacht title last year was not fully appreciated, and one way of addressing that is to win it back to back.
“Connacht medals are hard come by in Roscommon, there are very few fellas win two back to back. There is a great chance now. This was the easier route, Sligo and Leitrim would have seen it that way as well.
“We’d always say ‘once you avoid the big two’. We know we will be up against it, they are both Division One teams, we are coming from Division Four.
“But at the same time we are hoping we would make it difficult for them. The important thing is that we are competitive. Leitrim will be disappointed today that they weren’t competitive. That is the one thing we will have to be careful of – 2009 is very fresh in my memory, and I don’t want a repeat of that against either Galway or Mayo. We have to be competitive.”
