Glynn delights in another Wicklow medal added to huge haul

A small pinch was required, reveals Leighton Glynn, just to make sure it was all real.

The 31-year-old collected his ninth Wicklow SFC medal with Rathnew on Sunday afternoon and, added to the eight he has already amassed with the Glenealy hurlers, he stands out as the most decorated club player in the Garden County

“You’d have to pinch yourself to make yourself realise that you are after winning all these championships,” he laughs. “It is absolutely great. It is just the way the club is. It is bred into every player coming up along to aspire to win county finals. Every young lad in Rathnew wants to play for the club and even at the game on Sunday there was more young lads than men. We try and pass it down to them as best we can.”

Glynn first tasted success with Rathnew back in 1999, but admitted Sunday’s decider required the greatest exertion.

“By God it was hard fought. We elected to play against the wind in the first half and it was a bit of a containment job. We didn’t do very well though. We went 1-10 to 0-5 down at the start of the second half and it wasn’t looking great.

“The lads have that never say die attitude. We have been in a lot of county finals, 16 of the last 20. A lot of the lads would have been around for those finals and are well used to the going getting tough. We just had the know-how, probably a bit more so than Baltinglass in the last 10 minutes.”

Trailing 1-13 to 1-9 with five minutes remaining, Glynn dispatched from the penalty spot before teeing up Chris Healy, whose probing delivery was fisted to the net by James Stafford for the game’s crucial score.

“There was a fair amount of pressure resting on my shoulders given it was so close to the end and the position we were in. Added to that, I missed a penalty in the semi-final so the

confidence wouldn’t have been flowing. I got a good strike on the ball and lucky for us it did go in.

“Definitely this will go down as the hardest one to win. We have brought the young lads in this year and we were probably seen as a team in transition. To be eight down against Baltinglass, our biggest rivals, and to pull it back made the whole win that little bit more special.”

Glynn, along with brother Enan, John Manley and Warren Kavanagh, were pencilled in for hurling duty on Saturday and the corner-forward criticised the Wicklow County Board for the clash of fixtures.

“It was unfortunate that we didn’t get to perform in the hurling. We togged out and in all fairness to the Glenealy management, if we were going to be in it with 10 or 15 minutes to go, we all agreed that we would go on and try push it over the line. It just never materialised. I think it was the right call given how hard the football game turned out to be.

“Our county board didn’t really do us any favours with the fixtures. We have eight teams in the Wicklow SHC and yet you are not playing your county final until October. It is a bit ridiculous.

“I think yesterday was my tenth weekend on the go. There was a weekend thrown in there where we played on the Saturday and Sunday. Look, we are after winning two county championships in the space of eight days so it was well worth it.”