North West Cup
Round 2
Sligo 2-5
Mayo 0-10
@Sligo Centre of Excellence
Sligo made it two wins from two in this year’s U21 North
West Cup as they held on for the narrowest of victories over neighbours Mayo on
Saturday evening at the Sligo GAA Centre of Excellence.
Mayo opened the scoring through Brian Reape, a member
of last year’s All Ireland winning side but Paddy O’Connor soon cancelled out
Mayo’s first two points with two frees from the Sligo centre forward.
Sligo took control of the match as they dominated the
remainder of the half and got the first key score of the match when Gerard
O’Kelly Lynch found the back of the Mayo net on the 15th minute of
the opening half and when Kyle Cawley followed up with point. The home side now
had a four point lead.
It got even better for Sligo before the break as
Cawley also added a second goal before the break to ensure Sligo lead at the
break 2-3 to 0-2.
Paul Taylor’s side knew they would come under pressure
as Mayo had the wind in the second period and two quick fire points for Mayo
brought them back into the contest before Paul McNamara steadied the ship for
Sligo with a fine score from distance. Mayo
Substitute Jack O’Reilly reduced the margin once again but Geevagh’s Jodie
O’Reilly gave Sligo a healthy six point lead 2-5 – 0-5. But Sligo wouldn’t score for the remainder of
the match as Mayo came more and more into the match and that would be expected
with some of the players available to Michael Solan. Brian Reape added three
late points to drag his side back to within a single point but Sligo held out
for priceless victory as the defence held strong in the final three minutes to
ensure Sligo booked a place in this year’s North West Cup final.
Sligo Daniel Cafferkey, Nathan Mullen, Luke Nicholson,
Mikey Gordon, Kevin Banks, Paul McNamara(0-1), Sean Power, Gerard O’Kelly
Lynch(1-0), Paul Kilcoyne, Michael Clarke, Paddy O’Connor(0-2,2fs), Stephen
Connolly, Jodie O’Reilly(0-1), Alan McLoughlin, Kyle Cawley(1-1)
Subs Used Liam Gaughan for Stephen Connolly, Joe
McHugh for Alan McLoughlin, Darragh Kilcoyne for Gerard O’Kelly Lynch, Brian
Mahon for Kevin Banks
Mayo Matthew Flanagan, Eoghan McGrath, Marcus Park,
Gerard Holian, James Kelly, Sean Conlon, Shairoze Akram, Sean Walsh, Barry Duffy,
Jordan Flynn, Brian Reape(0-6,5fs), James McCormack, Ross Egan(0-1), James
Carr, Kevin Quinn(0-1)
Subs Used Jake O’Reilly(0-2) for Jordan Flynn, Jason
Forkan for Gerard Holian, Dylan Cannon for Shairoze Akram, Ryan O’Donoghue for
James Carr, Fionan Duffy for Ross Egan
Referee: Patrick McTiernan (Roscommon)