A blistering opening 13 minutes from Sligo laid the foundation for this hard earned victory. In that opening 13 minutes Sligo roared into a 0-6 v 0-0 lead with Alan Reilly the main score getter with Hubert Gilvarry and Shane Deignan adding points from range.
At this time it looked like we were headed for a handy victory but Longford got back into it with 3 points from corner forward Kenny, his first coming in the 21st minute. Sligo had hit a number short at this time but responded to Kenny score with one from corner back Jamie Callaghan. The half time score was 0-7 v 0-4
An early Longford point saw Alan Reilly respond with another score from play. However 2 minutes later he was given a second yellow and sent off. It was hard to recall his first card so there was confusion at this time. Longford saw their opportunity and began to score from all over the park. Longford hit the lead in the 15th minute and moved to 2 points up by the 18th. Substitute James Carroll ended a run of 17 minutes without a score with a fine effort after coming on. This was followed by Karl McKenna driving forward 2 minutes later and punting over.
Despite equalising Longford moved back into a 2 point lead and an intricate move saw Paul Flynn handpassing to the onrushing Cian Surlis who drove to the Longford net. The visitors responded with another point from play by Kenny who was impressive throughout when he latched onto a misplaced handpass in the Sligo defence. Sligo won the kickout going into injury time and drove forward and Shane Deignan finished the game off with 2 scores putting Sligo into the Philly McGuinness Development League Final.
Team: Daniel Lyons, Jamie Callaghan(0-1), Karl McKenna(0-1), Evan Lyons, Sean Murphy, Roly Anderson, Bryan Molloy, Brian Cox, Dillon McDermott, Cian Surlis(1-0), Shane Deignan(0-3), Oisin Conlon, Paul Flynn, Alan Reilly(0-5), Hubert Gilvarry(0-1) Subs used: James Carroll(0-1), James Duffy, Eoin Hallinan