Keith Beirne: It's frustrating Leitrim are still in Division 4

Leitrim's chief marksman Keith Beirne has praised Andy Moran with bringing a new 'professionalism' to the side, though acknowledges that their faltering promotion bid is a source of frustration within the squad.

Moran's outfit were initially touted as likely contenders to emerge from Division 4 after a crushing victory over Waterford - subsequently placed in perspective - in week one of the campaign.

However, these hopes have curdled somewhat since, with damaging away losses against Wexford and Wicklow, the latter occurring last weekend.

They now face into two testing games against the sides occupying the promotion spots, with both Laois and Sligo coming into Carrick-on-Shannon in the closing weeks of the campaign.

"When the fixtures were set out, we targeted the first four games," Beirne told RTÉ Sport.

"Going off the previous year, and challenge matches the year before, we'd played Laois, we played Sligo in Tailteann. We'd actually played Wicklow before championship as well.

"We kinda said them three and us were top four. We really looked at having eight points going into Wicklow.

"So when Wexford went the way it did, we didn't have that cushion of having eight points. Wicklow was kind of a must win. We are kind of a bit frustrated so we are under pressure going into the last-two.

"Andy put into the group this morning that we've championship games now. Which is probably good for us and good for the fans, knowing that we've do-or-die games against Laois and Sligo. Those two games are must-wins and it's going to set us up well going to New York.

"You'd always like to have the safety net of having eight or ten points and saying if we mess up against Laois, we'd still be okay for Sligo. But it makes the Laois game a massive game