Hurlers hoping for victory in All-Ireland
SLIGO U21 hurlers are taking on Donegal in the All-Ireland C final this Saturday and the young side are hoping to clinch their first title at this grade.
A lot of hard work has been put into training this season and with a number of players regularly featuring for the Senior side, it’s all to play for in Saturday’s fixture with Donegal in Markievicz Park at 4pm.
Sligo defeated Fermanagh in the quarter-final before comfortably seeing past Louth in the semi-final, while their opponents had a walk-over with Longford in their semi-final having defeated Tyrone.
Declan Loughnane is the Sligo manager, with Mick Burke coach and Bill O’Kelly-Lynch is also on the backroom team along with Brian McCann
Brian said the U21 side have a lot of experience on their panel. “In fairness to the lads, they have been training hard, particularly since the senior team were knock out.
“We’ve had two big wins over Louth in the semi-final and Fermanagh.
“Donegal had a walk-over with Longford while they had a big win prior to that with Tyrone, they won 2-23 to 1-5.”
He said Donegal are a decent team and it will be all to play for. “We know they are strong and have a good few Senior players like ourselves.
“The U21 C or the Andrew O’Neill Cup as it’s known has been around for a few short years, we played Cavan in the final before.
“The C competition is held earlier and the winner this Saturday will go on to play Kerry in the quarter-finals of that.
“We will see where we are at after this, it’s hard to know how it will go with the results.
“It’s hard to tell as there’s a wide range in the group,” Brian added.
Unlike the football champion- ship, the U21 grade is remaining in place next year.
Brian said the standard of this team is high. “We have good team, many are regulars with the Seniors. We have the likes of the two O’Kelly-Lynch’s, Paul Kilcoyne who are all on the county team, Eamon Kilgannon, Joe McHugh, Michael Gordon are dual players too. Kevin Banks and Kieran Prior from Coolera, Gavin Feely and Ronan Redmond too. There’s a good mix, it’s an experienced team. With Donegal playing in the football too, we’re expecting a big crowd in Markievicz,” Brian added.
The game is at 4pm.