Murphy keen to stay true to Wicklow

Wicklow manager Harry Murphy, who has just completed his first year in charge, confirmed he wants to stay in charge for another season.

“I’ll be staying on. Maybe they will run me, but at this stage it is still only my first year. We had a bad day today, but we have had good days too,” he said.

Murphy, who took over from Mick O’Dwyer, said the lack of accuracy up front was the primary reason for their exit.

“Obviously with 16 wides, it is not hard to see what went wrong. You can’t do what we did in the second half, the chances we missed.

“But in fairness to Leitrim, with their game plan they stretched our defenders and we just couldn’t get a grip on them. We tried everything we could, we moved lads around but they still stretched us,” he added.

Leitrim joint manager George Dugdale said they did not dwell on the fact they were the only county never to win a game since the back door system was introduced. Recovering from their Castlebar nightmare was the primary motivation for his joint manager Barney Breen, the players and himself.

“We are a new management and a new group of players, so we weren’t worried about the statistics, even though people kept telling us about it.

“The players showed the attitude they have, and the will power they have, and they showed how much this jersey means to them, they did very well.

“We needed that after the disappointing second half display we put in against Mayo. Obviously there are things we are going to have to improve on when we analyse it, but winning builds confidence and every game you win gives you a boost,” said Dugdale.