'We showed a bit of heart.': Leitrim manager reacts following narrow championship loss to Mayo

It was a remarkable comeback before a narrow three-point defeat for Leitrim minors after trailing Mayo 1-08 to no score in the opening quarter hour last Friday.

The team was a victim of a slow start in their opening round clash with Galway before putting up a fight against the Tribesmen.

“How do you sort that out? I'd love to know,” said joint manager Ciaran Kennedy, who praised his young team's fight back after their slow start, after a poor start left them with a lot to do, “We showed a bit of heart. We asked at halftime today for those lads to just leave everything out on the field, and they left everything out on the field, but for the scrape of the post there at the end, we could have got a draw out of it.”

Kennedy was careful to recognise how young his players are, with many still only 16, and the time it takes for young players to get up to speed in games at this level but Leitrim will be happy with the elements of their play as they created enough chances to win a game which they looked down and out of in the first half.

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“We got it back, I think it was four points. 1-8 to four, I think we had a goal chance then and at that stage, we had the momentum and if that goal had gone in, obviously ifs and buts, but if that goal had gone in, I think we would have had a bit more momentum going into the second half, but it didn't.”

Though Kennedy feels it wasn’t missed opportunities as much as just too many small errors in open play that cost Leitrim on the day: “Just when you have momentum, you need to capitalise on it, and we just didn't. We gave the ball back to them too easily.

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“I suppose when you're at this level with young fellas, all you're looking for is a little bit of consistency, and you can see with the senior team at the minute, grown men, and they can't get consistent performance from one weekend to the next. We're not even able to get it from one half to the next.

“So if we can bring that consistency that we showed in the second half, if we can bring the performance that we showed in the second half into the start of a game against Roscommon and Sligo down the line, then hopefully we'll not give them that head start.”