Denis Gorman still enjoying life at Letterbarrow

Denis Gorman has set the bar high for Letterbarrow Celtic this season.

Whatever happens with the aim of getting promotion out of Division 2, chances are Gorman will be back again next summer.

Save for the few seasons away at Eany Celtic, Gorman traces involvement as Letterbarrow manager as far back as 1994.

“I can’t get out of it,” he says,

“It’s a fantastic club to be involved in. Anything is better than carrying shopping bags around Dunnes on a Sunday!”

It’s 27 years now since he first sat in a dugout as Letterbarrow’s manager. The differences now are stark.

“It’s night and day,” he says. “Years ago, you were bursting yourself to get a team out whereas now you’re really managing people.

“There is so much going on now. So many young players get pulled everywhere if they look to be anyway decent at all.

“We are lucky here. We don’t get too carried away. If we don’t hit the ceilings we set then we don’t fall apart and we go again.

“The same people have stayed involved in the club so we have a good back bone.”

The likes of James McGroary, Barry Jordan and Michael Meehan are solid figures in the background and a loyal sponsor in Brian McMonagle has been vital too.

“We’re not hard to run,” Gorman says.

“We’re a basic country club. The people are generally easy enough to manage, but players now aren’t as tough as they used to be.

“So much is expected of young players now. We are fortunate that we have the backbone of the team available for training most weeks and we have a good relationship with the GAA club too.

“The one big difference now to back when I started is that young lads are more conscious of their fitness now and they look after that side of things better.”

Cathal Charlton, son of former Tanaiste Mary Coughlan, is the goalkeeper now and has impressed in his first full season at Letterbarrow.

Youngsters Barry Burke and Declan Duignan have stepped up and Martin Breslin’s recruitment has been another useful piece of business to compliment the likes of John Kenny, Daniel Meehan, James McGroary, Thomas White and Gerard McBrearty.

Letterbarrow travel to face in-form Letterkenny Rovers this Sunday. Stephen McConnell’s team have won all six of their League outings in the Cathedral Town club’s first season back among the junior ranks.

Lagan lost two in a row recently to stunt their promising start, but a 4-1 win over Curragh Athletic got their promotion bid back on track. Daniel Meehan’s brace and goals by Martin Breslin and Gerard McBrearty secured the win.

“We had a blip when we lost a couple of boys, between Covid and injuries,” Gorman says.

“We got back on track again, but we know that Letterkenny Rovers will be a tough ask.

“They’re a very good side. They’re a huge club and this is a top-notch side. We expected them to be in the running and they’re going well. Lagan are up there now too so we need to make every result count.

Leterbarrow last won promotion in 2019, but they dropped back to Division Two a year later again.

Gorman was also in charge for the winning of Division Two in the 1995/96 season.

“That was the best of all,” Gorman says. “We’d love to get back to that again, but we’ll not panic. We’ll keep going, like we always do.”