'I told him that Leitrim is a football-mad county'

Former Leitrim manager John O’Mahony hopes current boss Andy Moran can make a winning start to their Connacht championship campaign away to London this weekend.

Leitrim manager Andy Moran during the Connacht FBD League Preliminary Round match against Sligo at the Connacht GAA Air Dome in Bekan, Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Former Leitrim manager John O’Mahony reckons it’s “vital” for his fellow Ballaghaderreen man Andy Moran to lead the county to a win over London in Ruislip on Sunday.

Thirty years after he took charge of The Ridge County before guiding them to the Nestor Cup in 1994, O’Mahony knows the Connacht quarter-final trip to McGovern Park this weekend is more than a banana skin for Moran given that London won the counties’ Division 4 game in Bekan in February. The expected loss of key forward Keith Beirne to a suspension from the final round game against Sligo last month makes the journey more onerous.