The memories of high sun, hard ground
and the sounds of Croke Park were firmly banished from the minds of Sligo footballers
as they opened their season for 2023 with a comprehensive loss to Mayo that will have firmly
reminded them of the gap to the top of the Intercounty football ladder.
Manager Tony McEntee fielded a team that
included a mix of last year's panel, some returning faces and some new faces and
with extensive changes over the hour, particularly in the second half, 24
players saw action over the hour.
Mayo too had an experimental look but those
starting were clearly keen to impress new manager Kevin McStay as they stormed
into the game and built up most of their 10 point winning margin in the opening
quarter of the game.
The Mayo surge started with the throw-in which led to Matthew Ruane clipping over his side’s first score with just 13
seconds on the clock.
Mayo’s earlier dominance was total and
Sligo were literally pinned in their own half for the first ten minutes and
were fortunate to be just four points down at that point with Jordan Flynn,
Conor McStay and James Carr on target, the latter notching a fine point from distance
and a tight angle wide on the left.
Sligo's fortunes suffered a further blow on 15 minutes as first midfielder Conor Griffin shipped a heavy challenge that took him out of the game and then Conor McStay slipped
in for a well finished goal before the stricken Sligoman could be replaced, a score
that put his side eight points up.
Drumcliffe Rosses Point’s Cian Lally
replaced the luckless Griffin and shortly afterwards, Sligo finally got on the
scoreboard when David Quinn pointed from a place ball after Luke Towey was taken down as he crossed
the 50m line.
With the pattern of the game broadly established,
the pace of scoring slowed. Over the remaining twenty minutes of the first
half, Mayo added four points with two frees from Ryan O’Donoghue and points
from play by McStay and Ruane while Sligo had two in reply, a Sean Carrabine free
and an excellent score from play wide on the right by captain for the day Niall Murphy. That sent
the home side in to the break with a nine point advantage, 1-9 to 0-3.
Both sides started the second half
with personnel changes, with Donal Conlon, Brian Cox and Sean Carroll joining
the fray for the visitors. Mayo quickly had two points on the board to extend
their lead but Sligo got some hope when Donal Conlon pounced on some loose defending
from a high David Quinn ball over the square to find the net.
The goals however didn’t alter the Mayo
rhythm and they restored their advantage with points from Jack Carney, Bob Touhy,
Carr and Flynn to go 12 ahead by the halfway point of the second half.
As both sides started to make
extensive changes, the game lost its shape over the final quarter where Sligo were
actually the more effective. David Philips, Connacht U20 championship winners
Jack Lavin, Mark Connolly McGowan and Eoghan Smith and Bunninadden’s Conor
Murray all made their bow as points from Carrabine (three), Murphy (two), Towey, and Lally, with literally the last kick of the game, saw Sligo add seven over
the last twenty minutes to Mayo’s five to bring up a final scoreline of 1-20 to
1-10.
Not an easy start to the year for the
Yeats County, but lessons learned…
Sligo: Aidan Devaney; Paul McNamara, Evan Lyons,
Luke Nicholson; Luke Towey, Darragh Cummins, Mark Walsh; Paul Kilcoyne, Conor
Griffin; David Quinn (0-2 1 f), Sean Carrabine (0-3 3f), Gerard O’Kelly Lynch;
Cormac Howley, Niall Murphy (c) (0-3 1f), Nathan Rooney; Subs played: Cian Lally
(0-1), Donal Conlon (1-0), Sean Carroll, Brian Cox (0-1), Eoghan Smith, David Philips,
Jack Lavin, Mark Connolly McGowan, Conor Murray
Mayo: Colm Reape; Jack Coyne (0-1), David McBrien, Sam Callinan;
Stephen Coen, Conor Loftus, Donnacha McHugh; Matthew Ruane (0-2), Diarmuid
O’Connor; Jack Carney (0-4), Bob Tuohy (0-1, mark), Jordan Flynn (0-2); Conor
McStay (1-2), James Carr (0-2), Ryan O’Donoghue (0-3, two frees and a mark).
Subs played: Enda Hession, Bryan Walsh, Rory Brickenden, Paul Towey (0-1,
free), Jack Fallon (0-1), Jack Tuohy, Aaron McDonnell, Fenton Kelly (0-1),
Alfie Morrison, Rory Byrne and Ciaran Boland