​Guckian loss a blow but Fenagh the better team - St Mary’s Paul Henry

Paul Henry wasn’t making excuses, stating that Fenagh St Caillins were the better team in Saturday’s Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC Quarter Final but he did agree that the loss of Ben Guckian, in the very first minute, was a blow his team never truly recovered from.

“In fairness, Fenagh were a better team today,” Paul told the Observer when asked about the loss of Ben Guckian before the game even got going, adding “Ben is influential for us and unfortunately, things like that just happen in Championship football and you have to get on with it. Last week I was saying Ben had probably one of the best games all year against Leitrim Gaels and was our man of the match and then to lose him so early was a blow but Senan Bohan came in and did really, really well. I think we got back to one point there at one stage in the second half.

“We probably needed to get the next score after that but they got a few scores and ended up pulling a little bit away, giving a little breathing space to them and unfortunately we just never were able to recover from that. We had one or two little chances, McGrail got in there and it went over the bar. On another day, if your things are going for you, they can nestle in the top of the net but it wasn't to be today, no complaints - it just didn't work out today.”

The St Mary’s boss agreed that Ryan O’Rourke had a big impact on the game: “He created space and opportunity for the lads around him. Their forward line is excellent, that's why there's so many Leitrim players in their forward line and they're going to be a danger, no matter who they end up coming across in the rest of the championship. We knew that coming into the game, we tried to close them down as best we could. We were hoping for a few more scores on our side and that just didn't materialise today.”

The Sligo man was also impressed with the standard of football in Leitrim: “From what I've seen, senior football in Leitrim is a very high standard, the conditioning of an awful lot of teams is very very good. They just need to keep each club moving on in that direction and I’ve doubt Leitrim will be improving year on year.”

As for his own future and St Mary’s, Paul joked “I might be ran, I don't know” before stating his belief that the raw talent is there in the Mary’s squad to make a run at the Leitrim Senior Championship in the years ahead: “We came in with the idea of trying to improve things and put our own little stamp on it. We were hoping to go a bit further than the quarter-final, if we're honest, but that's the way it's worked out. I have a great bunch of lads in there. They're really good, anything we've asked them to do, they've done, they work really really hard, they're a young bunch so there's plenty of years ahead of them to improve.

“Hopefully in the next few years, they’ll be getting through quarterfinals and getting through semi-finals and get to county finals because there's this real quality in that group. They just need to push that a little bit further on now and make sure they're getting to county finals and hopefully St Mary's will get a county championship over the next coming years.”