LIATROIM are not a team that should be battling at the wrong end of the division, and they should be challenging the best teams in the county.
That’s the assessment of the senior football captain Eoin Clarke.
After nine games played this season in Division Two, Liatroim have won twice, lost six times and drawn once. Last Friday they suffered a 4-10 to 1-11 defeat to third place Downpatrick. It’s a sobering run of form for a team that won the Intermediate Championship last year.
But Clarke believes the team are ready to change their fortunes.
He told the Mourne Observer last week, “I think the evidence of the last few weeks has shown that we have been going from strength to strength.
“I don’t have any doubt that we have got the team that should secure safety and then kick on from there and see how disruptive we can be going forward.
“We want to make a surge. We want a fairer representation of where we stand in the hierarchy of Down football. I don’t think that we should be scrapping at the bottom but everyone is fighting every week to stay up.”
That’s a positive assessment to take, and an admirable one, considering their middling form so far in the competition. But Clarke said there are some positives to take from their games played so far.
“We would not be delighted, but we knew early on in the year that we were a bit understrength.
“So, we started off this year battling hard. Sometimes we knew we were overmatched. We have had some gutsy performances.
“Hopefully, as of late, we are learning how to turn that into actual results. We are trending upwards.”
Read the full story in the current issue to find out the reasons why they have not won more matches, and why Eoin is positive about the future.