All-Ireland SFC Qualifier Leitrim v RoscommonKeith Duggan asks Leitrim manager Declan Rowley if his side can defy the odds this afternoon and book a place in the third round of the qualifiers

On the evening that Galway eliminated Leitrim from the Connacht championship, Declan Rowley listened to words of encouragement from Michael Donnellan and Gary Fahey.

The bones of the messages were the same - that one of the best teams of modern times had been made to sweat it out by lowly Leitrim, that the county was going in the right direction, that it was important they keep it going.

Those words could have been taken as the kind consolations dropped upon the vanquished by a superior force, but Rowley knew there was substance to them.

To begin with, there would be a certain amount of empathy in Connacht for the difficulties that Leitrim face every season. But more to the point, he felt the same himself. A point down at half time, five points down with 10 minutes to go. Even if Galway always had that reserve of sheer class, there was the gratifying smell of a contest in Carrick that day.

It marked a welcome change from the dispiriting lessons visited upon the county in recent years. But to merely stay close to Galway is hardly the stuff of dreams.

Leitrim are among the more invisible counties in Gaelic games and 1994 is becoming too distant a touchstone to carry any tangible meaning for the new generation.

Size and population means the odds are against Leitrim to begin with; history and the structure of the championship mean that every summer, they run straight into an avalanche that has buried them so utterly, at times the only pertinent question seems to be: why bother? Why play for Leitrim?

"Well, it's a fair point," acknowledges Rowley, "because the reality is for us that there is probably not going to be any crock of gold at the end of the rainbow. There is nothing that simple to chase.

"So what we are faced with is trying to reach that next step of getting to a stage where we can consistently challenge.

"The attraction of playing for Leitrim comes with, we hope, the honour of playing with your native county and the sheer enjoyment of playing the game and then the ambition of furthering ourselves."

Recent results have given the small county some encouragement - a close-run league game against Limerick, a win over Offaly.

Against Galway, Rowley asked his team to be open and imaginative and to just run against the sport's peerless exponents of running and they were rewarded with a fine goal and an early lead.

At least under the new qualifying system, today's game against Roscommon is their third in the championship and the local context means that optimism is high along the Shannon.

For Rowley, the trick has been to convince his team they have the right to live with counties perceived as being more privileged than they; to make them believe they owe it to themselves not to feel inferior.

Over the year, they hear complaints of burn-out from stars that have already collected All-Ireland medals. It seems like an enviable malady. Ten of Leitrim's players live in Dublin; they leave the capital twice a week for training in Longford and are back at midnight, and at weekends they go home to either train or play.

And all for the hope of maybe going one or two games better than the previous season. At times, they must all question the worth of it. "I saw the Puma deal given to the five or six players a few months ago," says Rowley, "and I remember thinking why couldn't Séamus Quinn ever get something like that?

"This is a guy that has given over 10 years of service to his county and he is a really good player. Ask the Galway defenders what they think of him. But purely because he is plays football for Leitrim, he would never be considered for something like that."

Rowley has long been an advocate of a new system to give smaller counties a more tangible goal.

Rightly decrying the old B championship as derogatory in its very name, he is a strong advocate of an All-Ireland plate competition, which teams eliminated from the senior championship would immediately enter.

He believes that if properly promoted by the GAA, with attendant advertising and a final day in Croke Park, it would quickly acquire status and a patina of glamour.

So far, his calls have fallen on deaf ears, nothing new from a Leitrim perspective.

And yet, Leitrim still have a heartbeat in a championship that has already seen off counties like Cork and Westmeath. Last Sunday's draw brought whoops of joy around north Connacht.

Ros' fancied Leitrim and Leitrim liked the idea of getting to grips with a county they know intimately.

The fear was that they would be paired against a similarly unheralded county or face the impossible against a county like Armagh. Roscommon provide stern opposition, but are a team that Leitrim will believe they can trouble.

A win here and a fortuitous draw and it is not beyond the bounds of reason that the county would find itself part of a big day in Croke Park.

"That is what we have been telling the players, that in the broader context, we are not all that faraway from that scene.

"Just to go up there and compete at that level in that setting would be great for us, regardless of what way it turned out."

Leitrim in Croke Park. Always, it has the sound of a fairytale. Maybe it will happen.

Today, though, brings a more recognisable setting. A packed ground in Carrick, hoping against hope, having to play out of their skins just to stay in them.