Sligo’s senior footballers endured a frustrating evening under the bright lights of Semple Stadium in Thurles as they went down by four points - 1-13 to 1-4 - to hosts Tipperary in the fourth round of the Allianz League Div 4 on Saturday evening.
Sligo looked tentative from the off s Tipperary took advantage of a swirling breeze that was slightly in their favour to secure the opening two points of the game.
Sligo open their account with a fine Pat Hughes point which was followed minutes later by a from Luke Towey goal which showed all the potential of his game when he rifled home after a fast break from midfield.
It was to be the high point of the game for the visitors as Tipperary reeled off 1-5 without reply to lead 1-7 to 1-1 on 20 minutes, by staying patient and pickling the right ball to find space and finish precisely against a Sligo defence that was willing but just not sufficiently connected.
Sligo finished the first half on an up with two points each from Alan Reilly, and Niall Murphy – one of the latter’s a free - to one pointed free from Conor Sweeney leaving the Premier County three up at the break – 1-8 to 1-5.
Although it opened evenly enough with three points from Luke Towey, Pat Hughes and Sean Carrabine in the first ten minutes, the greater part of the second half proved to be a frustrating one for Sligo. With the tricky wind now behind them, they dominated possession but failed to create enough scoring opportunities and only added one more score in the last 25. By contrast Tipperary picked their times and spaces to attack and picked off points to stretch their lead again to finish four ahead.
M O Reilly; S O Connell, W Eviston, J Harney; K Fahey (0-1), S O Connell, R Kiely (0-1); P Feehan (0-2), M Russell (0-1); B Maher, J Kennedy (0-1), T Doyle; M O Shea (0-2), C Sweeney (0-4, 4fs), S O Connor (1-0). J Feehan for Eviston (HT), C Kennedy for P Feehan (48), S Quirke for Russell (51), C Deeley (0-1) for J Kennedy (55), J Lonergan for Fahey (70).
A Devaney; E Lyons, D Cummins, P McNamara; N Mullen, P Kilcoyne, K Cawley; C Griffin, P Laffey; S Carrabine (0-1 f), L Towey (1-1), M Gordon; A Reilly (0-2), P Hughes (0-2), N Murphy (0-3, 0-1f). D Phillips for Cummins(h/t), E McGuinness for Griffin(48mins), P Spillane for Gordon(48mins), D Quinn for Towey(58mins), B O Gorman for Reilly (65mins);