Leitrim 2014 - all matters of relevance here.

[quote="RMDrive"]Saw on twitter earlier that Mulligan has never played in CP. Suppose I shouldn't be surprised - lots haven't. Apparently he was saying that a league final is probably the only chance he has.[/quote]

Despite todays win HQ is still a far distant dream for our players. There are some hardy challenges in Div 4 when that's your accepted level and it ain't going to change.
The pity for the purists on here is that most of them will never even see him in action. He's a bit odd to look at initially, in that you'd think he was a stumpy little fooker, until you realise the ground he's covering. Great footpassing off either foot and a huge workrate.
For the 2nd. week in a row Mossy Beirne (How's all the Stickeys) goaled with the fist....He's keeping the 14 shirt (XXXXL) warm until Conor sheds a few stone pounds....

Fit or unfit Mossy was super last weekend. An absolute handful for full back and should have had two goals.

Interesting to see how we get on this sunday.

For a game we dominated they still had plenty of chances without playing particularly well.
Ollie Cummings leitrims trainer last year is with antrim this year. Players said they expected Antrim to be heavy legged similar to themselves at start of last year.


I presume ye have all seen the video of the drumkeerin lad on youtube and his father. Wonder how the father has been received in local circles in North Leitrim. Barred from mass perhaps or god forbid the North Leitrim mens group

Boxtyeater wrote:Off to a winning start......

Glossy programmes for league openers against Antrim. There's money in the West...

The St.Brigids crosses are paying off it seems....No point in having oodles of cash slushing around and skimping on a lock of oul' match programmes. Fail to prepare and all that....
The least our Nordie visitors are entitled to is a decent programme.

I'll load the "driving test" clip later for those who haven't seen it.

Edit: Video removed. Not for the genteel folk but the "live" version was funny.

Here it is for those who haven't seen it yet......

We quarried out a draw in the wilds of Miltown-Malbay in a dour battle. Miltown in winter ain't the same as during the Willie Clancy week in July. Mulligan got the goal and we eked out 2 points in injury time to force a draw. For the 2nd year in a row against these mucksavages we suffered a bad injury, this time to the emerging Damian Moran, which took 8 minutes to sort out. The gravity of the injury is not clear as yet but we have 3 weeks before the next round. We have the Scallion eaters in Pairc Seán next which possibly may add impetus. Wicklow are a point ahead on 4 and todays results left the gate open for all contenders.

I'm happy with 3/4 at this stage. This time last year we were 0/4. Progress.

We were down in Kinsale there for a few days and in the aftermath of grub one of the nights became involved with a younger group of people in what I'd term "barstool banter".
One of the group inquired where we were from, as he said "you talk like my oul' lad". Upon hearing the answer and asking a few more questions he instructed me to wait there, paying for pints in the interim.

He returned in 10 minutes with his own oul' lad, who was in fact a Fenagh native who departed our locality more than 50 years ago for America. He married a Kinsale woman and returned to Cork in the early 1970's.
All their family had left the homestead by then and he never darkened our fair green fields again. He is of course related to "you know who". A grand oul' evening ensued and we promised to meet again.

I rang the Dauber the next morning to acquaint him of his lost relative and bring him the good tidings - the fatted calf and all that.....The response went as follows:

"Get out there Boxty as quick as you can and get €300 - that fooker stole a grand bull calf belonging to my father to finance his flight to America before the XXXX's found out about the fix their daughter got left in. The fooker probably shot Kennedy".....

Sometimes it's hard to be sociable.

Massive game for us this wkend.

Any word on Glynn's appeal I wonder. Could be a decision that could define our hopes in Division 4. Slightly worrying that we didn't pin on an extra few scores last wkend. Still lacking that bit of ruthlessness in front of goal.

Best wishes to Tomas Beirne too. Poor lad. Speedy recovery hopefully.

johnnos bulls wrote:Massive game for us this wkend.

Any word on Glynn's appeal I wonder. Could be a decision that could define our hopes in Division 4. Slightly worrying that we didn't pin on an extra few scores last wkend. Still lacking that bit of ruthlessness in front of goal.

Best wishes to Tomas Beirne too. Poor lad. Speedy recovery hopefully.

Glynn's appeal turned down. Mossy up and about, at the match on Sunday. It's a big knock back all round but we're in better shape for replacements than we were last year.

Result from Aughrim (once described as an impregnable fortress).....

Liatroim 1-17.
Cill Mhantán  0-11.

Joint top with Clare & Tipperary whom we have at home. That will be a difficult one to crack.
Away to Waterford next Saturday. They were annihalated by London today so can't be going great.
Final game is against London (away). At least we're still in with a great shout, it's in our own hands at this stage. It's a quite amazing result from Aughrim, we turned a point up after having the breeze and then they missed a penalty....We kicked on after that.

The lads must be in good shape just the same. 1-17 is good kicking any day of the year.



Allianz FL4 P W D L Dif Pts
Tipperary 4 3 1 0 35 7
Leitrim 4 3 1 0 23 7
Clare 5 3 1 1 20 7
Wicklow 4 2 0 2 -4 4
Antrim 4 1 0 3 6 2
London 4 1 0 3 -25 2
Carlow 3 1 0 2 -27 2
Waterford 4 0 1 3 -28 1

Great result from Leitrim - you don't often score 1-17 Boxty, so that is very impressive.

Promotion is a real possibility and progress is clearly being made.

The train rolls on.

Some result for us. Was in McCumhaill park yesterday and the way Donegal played, they would have done well to go to aughrim and claim two points.

Hard to see Leitrim not promoted now. Waterford,London games to come which they should win that will you give 11 points and enough for promotion plus a trip to Croke park on the 26th of April.

Gaa_lover wrote:Hard to see Leitrim not promoted now. Waterford,London games to come which they should win that will you give 11 points and enough for promotion plus a trip to Croke park on the 26th of April.

Talk about putting the bad hand on us.......

Aw stop the lights.

Fraher field Saturday night.

How many teams have gone to Ruislip close to championship the last few years without a battle?
But listen isn't it great to be going into the end of a league campaign with optimism and hope something we have being devoid of in recent times

Boxtyeater wrote:

Gaa_lover wrote:Hard to see Leitrim not promoted now. Waterford,London games to come which they should win that will you give 11 points and enough for promotion plus a trip to Croke park on the 26th of April.

Talk about putting the bad hand on us.......

Waterford in shocking form while London won't face a patched up Leitrim side this time. The 2014 unbeaten run could end against Tipp though..

No doubt Tipperary are a formidable force and will be strong favourites. The result on Saturday is of massive importance as it could give us another 2 points. One game at a time is the motto I'm told.
The Saturday game gives us an extra day to re-energise before facing the Stone-throwers.

A big, big evening in Dungarvan looms even closer. Will there be a carnival athmosphere in Ballinamore on
Saturday night   Now or never as they say, Powers have us as 1/2, always a bad sign.......

A bad performance at the most in-appropriate time. A mountain now awaits as the free-scoring Tipperary doddle up to Carrick on Sunday, knowing that any victory secures them promotion. They'll probably administer a 10 point drubbing to bring us back to earth and condemn us to the basement yet again.

"On your darkest day, put on your best suit, a good overcoat - worn open and wear a hat" was a maxim I learned from Boxty Mór back in the day. This may have been applicable when facing Court proceedings about issues such as grazing cattle on the "long acre", motoring offences such as car tax, or an issue with milk sent to the creamery. These, believe it or not, were issues back in the day, but I digress.

I've alleviated todays reversal in Pairc Seán by booking a 10 day sabbatical in Gran Canaria (May 13-23) hence missing the Connacht championship clash in the Hyde. No outing in Croke Park on April 26th. as we cast our eyes on Div 3 football next Spring, no chance of meeting in a local derby with Longford/Swampies/Sligo. No No No----more of Carlow/Wicklow/Antrim/Waterford......

I've finally lost the faith for far-flung outposts like Fraher Field, DCP and Aughrim.

"The waistcoat was all right, and anyway the coat would cover it.  But the coat itself, that was where Aughrim was lost."

The county minors are on the upward curve....Mark Plunkett is a fine prospect, as is young Gaffney.

In other news Conor Beirne has rejoined the senior panel along with brother Mark. Whatever about Conor looking to shed about 2 stone, Mark could do with shedding 3 or 4 stone at last viewing.







Mohill's Shane Quinn and Alan McLoughlin are also called up from U-21. Young Quinn will push hard for a starting place against Roscommon.

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Boxtyeater wrote:The county minors are on the upward curve....Mark Plunkett is a fine prospect, as is young Gaffney.

In other news Conor Beirne has rejoined the senior panel along with brother Mark. Whatever about Conor looking to shed about 2 stone, Mark could do with shedding 3 or 4 stone at last viewing.







Mohill's Shane Quinn and Alan McLoughlin are also called up from U-21. Young Quinn will push hard for a starting place against Roscommon.

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What's latest on Mossy Beirne? Conor Beirne should be a big addition to the Leitrim panel and not just in weight. Wins against the Galway U-21s and minors when is the last time Leitrim did that?

Mossy will miss the rest of the year due to injuries sustained in an accident with the lorry. He's out and about and has had corrective surgery a few weeks ago to enable him hold his head up straight - I kid you not.
He's in a neck-brace for another while but I gather the surgery was successful, he's a big loss.

Conor Beirne will give us options in the inside line, he's accurate and can win his own ball but lacks pace.

We were reasonably competitive underage in the late 80's and for a spell in the mid 90's but have been terrible since. Shane Ward (U-21) and Enda Lyons (minor) have done wonders with whats available to them in all fairness but we need to sustain it at minor level.

Tough luck for Mossy his injury or accident robbed Leitrim of their main target man for the league. I think it was Conor Beirne's senior debut season in 2011 when he played important role in beating Sligo. Leitrim have done well at U-16 level recently and should have good minor teams for the next two years at least and in theory those minors should make decent U-21s sides in 2015,16.

We might as well pack it in, the Rossies look awesome. Shine back to his very best, Kilbride keeping that
citeóg working at it's sweetest, Cregg a cert for wing forward, Cathal Shine blossiming at midfield.

Endless is the bounty of these hoors, about 4/5 U21's to come in, both Smiths and Murtagh......

In the face of this I'm going to be brave/adventourous/foolish with my preferred option...

Cathal McCrann.

Alan Wynne.
Donal Wrynn.
Paddy Maguire.

Paul Brennan.
Gary Reynolds.
Barry Prior.

Darren Sweeney.
Shane Moran.

Kevin Conlan.
Wayne McKeon.
Fergal Clancy.

Shane Quinn.
Robbie Lowe/Conor Beirne.
Emlyn Mulligan.

In a daring move I've relocated Wayne Mac (our best all-round footballer to the 40). His pace/power and vision are best utilised in his natural mode as an agressive attacker. I'm drafting in Shane Moran to 9, a fine big lad, a youth I know, but where better to become an man than in the Hyde. I've dispensed with the Manor Glancy from the inside line, similiar with Ray Cox, their days are done.
The Donie Shine issue is troubling. The Fenagh man, Donal Wrynn, has the physique, pace, hands and ability for him, but at 6, I'm sceptical, given my lack of faith in Ciaran Egan for the 3 shirt.

At this juncture I'm happy that I have at least 12. Sean Hagan has the same 12, but where.....