By John Harrington

When the final whistle blew moments after Gary Plunkett kicked an injury-time winner for Leitrim against Limerick last Sunday, Gary Reynolds couldn’t help but feel a very important corner had been turned in the county’s recent footballing history.

The last time the long-serving defender was in Kilmallock was in 2008 when he played for a Leitrim team that was relegated from Division Three to Division Four after losing their final round league match.

Leitrim have been becalmed in the doldrums of Division Four football ever since without ever really getting any worthwhile wind in their sails.

Their third-place finish in 2009 was the closest they ever came to promotion, and since then they’ve finished fourth twice, fifth on four occasions, and seventh twice.

So, for Reynolds, to win their fourth League match in a row this season by beating Limerick in the very same venue where they were relegated 11 years ago felt symbolic of the county’s changing fortunes.

If they make it five wins from five by beating London in what’s likely to be a rocking Pairc Sean MacDiarmada on Sunday then, barring a mathematical miracle, they’ll win promotion to Division Three after 11 years in Division Four.

As much as he’s trying not to get too far ahead of himself, Reynolds can’t help but be energised by the buzz in the county at the moment and the tantalising prospect of most of Leitrim descending on Croke Park for a Division Four League Final.

“I'm around a long time, 2005 was when I first came onto the panel, and I've never really felt the aura and vibe that's around Páirc Sean at the moment,” Reynolds told GAA.ie

“There are people I'd know well getting onto me about going to games and maybe they wouldn't have been the first people going to games over the years before.

“We're trying to play down expectations as you would imagine because we're so starved of success over the last few years, but it’s brilliant.

“2006 was the last time we played in Croke Park for the Tommy Murphy Cup Final. One thing I took from that day was the bus journey on the way in and the fact we had a police escort.

“I was only 18 years of age at the time and it's something I'll never forget. That's the kind of experience you want these young Leitrim footballers to get at this stage and if that comes for the League Final it will be excellent.

“I was going around at the weekend there telling them not to be thinking about Croke Park and not to be thinking of promotion.

“But you can't help but let your mind wander when you're after putting so much effort into it and think, 'God, if we are to beat London then barring a miracle it looks like we're through'.

“Someone will have to stay around Leitrim to keep an eye on the place because if we get there I don't think there'll be too many left the way things have gone the last couple of weeks.”

Leitrim supporters currently find themselves suspended somewhere between two contrary emotional states – giddy excitement and gnawing fear.

They can’t help but daydream about the prospect of a big day out in Croke Park, but the nightmarish prospect of a sudden collapse in form is also something that preys on the subconscious of supporters more used to bad days than good ones.

Mike Feeney is Chairman of the Leitrim Supporters Club in Dublin and as much as he’s trying to keep his two feet planted on the ground, he’s also finding it difficult not to be swept along by the rising tide of optimism in the county.

“There's huge excitement and huge interest, it’s fantastic," Feeney told GAA.ie. "There were over 1,000 Leitrim people in Kilmallock on Saturday afternoon which was quite incredible because it's quite a journey down from Leitrim and indeed for people like myself who are based in Dublin.

“But the London match is one that I don't think any of the supporters will take for granted.

“There are high expectations but we do recognise that Sunday is a potential banana skin. We were beaten by London in the Connacht semi-final in 2013 so know what they’re capable of.

“What encourages me though is that the mental preparation of the team has been really good all year. The seem to be very joined up as a unit and working very hard for each other.

“They’ve certainly left it very late in a lot of matches and our hearts have been in our mouths, but you could only admire their never say die attitude.

“One of the things that Terry Hyland has done as manager is he's brought a great sense of expectation and confidence into the players.”

Building up the self-belief and mental fortitude of his players was priority number one for Hyland when he was appointed manager.

To help in this regard he brought in Robert Moorhouse, a business and personal coach, to work with the panel and specifically develop their ability to work together as a team.

He organised work-shops where the players were divided into teams and given practical challenges such as building a structure with a specific set of component parts in the fastest time possible.

The idea is to encourage better communication and team-work ina problem-solving environment so that when the players are confronted with a challenge on the pitch they have the psychological tools to keep their cool and work together to overcome it rather than panic.

So far, the benefit of that specific coaching has been very apparent.

In their last three matches against Wicklow, Antrim, and Limerick, Hyland’s team have come from behind in the closing stages to win games they previously would most likely have lost.

Leitrim are now displaying a greater mental resilience than they have in the past and that’s because it’s an area Hyland specifically targeted.

“I would be a firm believer all these years involved in management that you have to do that,” Hyland told GAA.ie.

“You can be in great physical shape, but mental strength is what you're going to need most, especially in a competition like this where you have to gain traction.

“You have to see where you want to go to and that's only in your mind's eye when you set out at the start. That's why the mind is probably the biggest factor in a game.

“When I came down to Leitrim everybody said to me, 'God, they're lovely people, they're great people with a great manner,’ and they are.

“But sometimes maybe the expectations mightn't be as high as they are in other places on a football front. Maybe I’m good for them from that point of view.

“Something that we've been working on with them is to not give into any panic. At the end of the day, the most relevant statistic in any game is the scoreboard and you just need to be ahead on it when the game is over. You don't need to be ahead 10 or 15 minutes before the end.

“We've probably engrained that attitude into them - not to panic and to keep working.

“It comes down to the belief factor. The fact that they've now pulled those couple of results out of the bag by doing that instils it all the more.

“It's a matter of just playing it out. It's the same in all walks of life - when you see that white line you have to make damn sure you're going to get across it first.”

Leitrim has the smallest population in Ireland at just over 30,000 which is one of the reasons why the GAA community is such a tight-knit one.

So when they get a successful team to follow it quickly engenders a vibrant unity of spirit because everyone knows everyone else and they’re all more than happy to get on the roller-coaster together.

Four League wins mightn’t get the pulses racing in bigger counties more used to success, but for Leitrim supporters this League run has provided a real shot of adrenalin which will be every evident when they pack out Páirc Sean MacDiarmada on Sunday.

“One thing that people mightn't realise is that the GAA in Leitrim is very strong,” says Mike Feeney. “Per capita I think we have more players than any other county.

“From Manorhamilton to Gortlettragh, the GAA is very strong in the county. It's been a very, very tough time since 1994 and 1995 when the team was doing well.

“But even through the bad times Leitrim supporters have been so loyal. Our annual supporters club draw brings in €100,000 every year which is a huge amount for a county like Leitrim and has been the lifeline that keeps Leitrim GAA alive.

“I would say Leitrim must have the most loyal supporter base in the country and that’s why the prospect of promotion and getting to Croke Park would mean an awful lot to us.”

Feeney and his fellow committee members will be outside Páirc Sean on Sunday selling Supporters’ Club Draw tickets and hopefully persuading those with deeper pockets to also invest in ‘The Leitrim Wall’, a fundraising initiative that allows you to buy a brick with a personalised message that will literally be set in stone at the Centre of Excellence in Annaduff.

€2.9 Million has already been spent on the facility and another €300,000 is required to put the finishing touches to a facility that is playing its own vital role in this Leitrim team’s upward curve.

“100 per cent, no doubt about it,” says Gary Reynolds. “Small things make it easier.

“Over the years we'd have training, and, no disrespect to any of the clubs who opened their doors to us over the years, but we've been in some shocking environments going back six or seven years ago where you'd be driving to training from Dublin and you wouldn't actually know where you were going to.

“You could get a text two hours before training to tell you where it was going to be based. You'd go in and the showers might be cold and that was no fault of anybody, it was just we didn't have a place we could call our home.

“Nowadays if you land in early there's a kitchen facility there where you can get a bite to eat if you didn't have time on the way out of Dublin.

“You can have a cup of tea in there, we can do proper video analysis now, we can eat our food in a bit of peace and quiet, not eating in a dressing-room trying to balance the plate on your knees.

“It's the small things like that that other people mightn't appreciate that we have been denied over the last 10 or 15 years since I've been playing.

“Even having the development squads around the place is a good thing. If you go in there now you see the gym packed with development squads doing S&C and then they're straight in next door for a bit of food.

“It's important for us all to be based in the same area. You've got the young lads and you've got the senior team. I'm helping out with the Leitrim U-16 team at the moment and it's very easy for me to go down and help train those lads and then jump over straight into senior training.

“Everybody is in the same place and there's a real good vibe about the place. The Leitrim crest is pinned up all over and it's hugely important to all of us that there's a bit of meaning to that because we want to create a culture.”

Perhaps the most valuable culture you can have within a panel is a competitive one.

That’s something that hasn’t always come easily to Leitrim for two reasons.

Not only does the county’s small population mean their playing resources are always relatively shallow, they’ve also often struggled to persuade all of the best footballers in the county to commit to the cause.

Now, though, they have a very talented crop of young players who have come through together and Hyland has also persuaded other prodigal sons to return to the panel.

Such is the competition for places now, that established players like Reynolds and Emyln Mulligan who for so long were two of the first names inked on the team-sheet are now having to make do with sitting on the bench.

Both of them are playing catch-up because Mulligan was married in December and Reynolds rehabbed a broken ankle over the winter, but it’s a testament to how well the team is doing that Hyland hasn’t thrown them straight back into the fray now they’re back up to speed.

“There's an extra 15 or 20 lads coming on behind the starting 15 and we're all absolutely buzzing to get into training to try to get our place on the team in order to push the thing on again,” said Reynolds.

“Winning breeds enthusiasm around the county among supporters but it also does the same for the footballers themselves.

“I'm seeing now the U-20s training and all of a sudden I'm seeing their eyes lighting up at the sight of the senior team coming in when for years there it was a case of, ‘do I really want to be playing for Leitrim anymore with some of the beatings we were getting?’

“It's a snowball effect with everything. The public are behind us now, seats are being filled in Páirc Sean, and it's also getting young people around the county wanting to play for the senior team again.

“I was worried there for a few years because it was heart-breaking coming home from those League campaigns and the defeats we suffered.

“I knew in my heart and soul we had the footballers capable of doing it. It was just about getting a bit of belief and getting the professionalism behind the set-up in order to push the thing on.

“The difference that has made, even one year of it, and hopefully there will be many more years of it if we can keep the thing going.

“I really don't want to jinx it by thinking too much about promotion until it's mathematically assured, but if we can really get that and head up to Division 3 that's really our Championship.

“If we could get out of Division Four then it would be just dreams come through.

“Other counties might laugh at that but it would be it genuinely would be for many of us.

“We know how big an opportunity Sunday’s match is for us.”

Sunday's match against London will be an emotional roller-coaster for Leitrim players and supporters alike, because, one thing is for sure, they're all in this together.