Leitrim manager Steven Poacher described his panel as “astonishing” after they ended a 15-year wait for a victory over Sligo in the Connacht Football Championship with a major shock in Markievicz Park this afternoon.
Sligo were considered strong favourites to progress to a meeting with Galway later this month against a youthful Leitrim team that struggled in Allianz Football League Division 4.
But two first half goals turned the game in Sligo and Poacher’s men held on, despite seeing a 10-point lead whittled down to one.
Poacher said: “It’s 15 years of hurt and it’s worth it today. The journey these lads have been on, I can’t even begin to tell you the journey these lads have been on. It’s astonishing.
“This is a young group. I don’t think people realise. I think we’ve five Under-20s on the field there at the end. I think there are 12 or 13 lads probably under the age of 22 or 23 finishing the match.
“That is a Sligo team that’s further on down the road than us. A Sligo team that have aspirations of being in Division 2 and contesting Tailteann Cups.
“Today will do the world of good for these lads, but what they’ll do, and I told them inside before we went out today, I said ‘you will inspire a generation of young Leitrim lads here today if you can pull this off’.
“Every one of them to a tee, including their six subs, the blood sub, the five changes, they worked their socks off until there was nothing left to give.
“And you know what? They deserve that. They deserve that and it’s fantastic to see.
“Leitrim are a proud county, and I’m just really looking forward now to Galway in two weeks’ time.”
Stephen Poacher paid tribute to Barry McNulty’s contribution
Leitrim finished second bottom in Division 4, which included four losses. While they fared well against Mayo in Connacht last year, the indications were that the remainder of their season was going to be all about the Tailteann Cup.
Now they a semi-final to look forward to.
Asked what changed, Poacher explained: “It’s there [within the panel]. We were robbed on the first day down in Wicklow. We were robbed.
“We played them off the park. We should have won that game. We played for the first three or four games without Barry McNulty. Barry is our talisman.
“Take David Clifford out of Kerry. What happens there? Kerry look ordinary.
“People don’t give Barry McNulty the credit.
“He’s an amazing footballer. The way he was targeted today was unbelievably cynical. There was a yellow card, then there was another man that took a yellow, then another man on took a yellow.
“Barry is made a tough stuff. I’ll tell you. He’s a big, big strapping man from Manorhamilton. It takes a lot more than that to ruffle Barry McNulty, but we knew it was in them.”
Leitrim held a short training break before this Connacht quarter-final which Poacher said was key.
“We went away for three days last weekend. We bonded, we glued. The work we got done was amazing and we left that camp on Easter Sunday at 4pm and everyone knew we were going to win this game today.”
“I’m ecstatic to be honest, I can’t put it into words to be honest. I’m just so proud of the lads and the performance we put in.
McHugh was equally jubilant at a result that had been a generation in the works for Leitrim.
He was filled with desire from pre-match discussion around the game.
“Talk about being written off coming in here,” he explained.
“The amount of **** that has been said about us online and stuff. People are writing us off giving us no chance coming into this game and we’ve probably put that right today.
“I think it’s maybe 16 years since we beat Sligo on this day in 2011 here in Markievicz Park as well.
“We’ve let it go before, we’ve let it slip coming down the stretch last year, we’ve let it slip coming down the stretch maybe four years ago and ended up losing on penalties.
“This win has been coming and let nobody tell you any different.”
Supporters spilled onto the pitch in Sligo in scenes that left McHugh struggling to find words.
“I’m getting emotional to be honest. It’s great to have [supporters] on a day like this but there was dark days maybe down in Tipperary in the league and Carlow and you still had your people coming supporting you and backing you.
“It’s those people and those faces that you know that have been with us through the hard times as well.
“I’m just so happy for them, to see them coming up to me and just being able to show them that I’ve given it everything for them today. The lads have given it everything for them and get across the line for them.”