Leitrim finally got back into the winner’s enclosure with a three-point win over hosts Sligo in the FBD League final on Sunday as new captain Emyln Mulligan lifted a trophy in his first big game as skipper.

Mulligan told RTE afterwards, “Some people mightn’t treat the FBD League as seriously as other competitions but for our lads it is huge.

“Over the years of not being successful, this is only our fourth ever trophy in 127 years, so it’s huge for the players and huge for the supporters. We are all delighted here.

“The main thing for us is to build a bit of momentum going into the National League because we’ve a tough division in Division 4.

“We’ve Limerick away next weekend. We set out our stall to take the FBD seriously, to reach the final and hopefully win it. The draw wasn’t in our favor, coming down here to play Sligo in Markievicz Park, but we grinded out a result.

Like Mulligan, Leitrim boss Barney Breen wants to use the FBD success as a steppingstone.

Breen said after Sunday’s win, “Other teams might not take the FBD too seriously, but this reminds me a bit of 1990 when we won the All-Ireland ‘B’ for the first time.

“We took that competition seriously too at the time and that catapulted us on to better things.

“But we won’t be going mad or anything because this will mean nothing if we don’t go on now and win over first two leagues games, starting with Limerick next week.”