See You On Sunday!

 

Leitrim followers should need little encouragement to hop across the Sligo border on Sunday for the FBD Insurance Connacht League Final in Markievicz Park.  We should have fond memories of our last visit there!

 

A final suggests the end of something, but really for both counties, Sunday is also very much a beginning.  A beginning of the championship bragging rights for a start.  If Leitrim handle New York and Sligo do the same with London, then the focus will be on the big day in Páirc Seán on Sunday June 23rd, when they come head to head in the Connacht Championship Semi-final, just one step away from the chance of real glory.  Thats Bonfire night, so whichever side can blaze a trail that day will have their followers hearts aflame right up to Connacht Final Day.

 

A League Final is also the culmination of a series of games, in which you have to earn your right to be in the top two. Leitrim and Sligo are both happy with how they have performed in  this years FBD League to date.  For the green and gold there is the added bonus of beating old rivals the Rossies and then burying the ghosts of Castlebar against Mayo, before hitting a rocky patch against the students of GMIT.  To win on Sunday all engines will need to be firing.

 

There is another incentive for victory in Markievicz — the not so small matter of qualifying to travel to the Big Apple to play New York on Sunday October 6th in the overall FBD Final.  There was a time when a gold watch or individual trophies would have been the norm, but thanks to the generosity of the FBD Insurance Company and of Connacht Council GAA, the prize is a much bigger one.

 

Come Sunday it is doubtful if anything in the future will be of concern to Barney, George or the players. All they will want is to clinch victory on the day.