Sligo Hurlers cruise to victory over Cavan in NHL Division B meeting at Kent Park.
SLICK Sligo consolidated their place at the summit of NHL Division 3B with a facile victory over a disappointing Cavan side on Sunday afternoon last at Kent Park.
Scoreboards are seldom guilty of perjury and while the hosts’ 19 point victory margin may have been a tad flattering, their superiority in so many aspects of the game was crystal clear.
The runaway winners were faster off the mark, fitter, more mobile and simply better hurlers in every position bar none. In truth, Daithí Hand’s charges look, for all the world, shoo-ins for promotion this year.
Everything is relative, of course, and Sligo’s performance must be assessed in the context of how poor Cavan were on the day.
The Breffni blues were never at the races; trailed by 0-0 to 3-8 after 26 minutes before self-imploding with the dismissal of centre-forward Kevin Conneely in the 47th minute.
Conneely picked up his second yellow card at a time when the Ulstermen were enjoying their best spell of the game.
Their Galway-born manager (Michael Carr) must have felt relief and hope in equal measure as his men reined in Sligo’s lead to a more respectable 3-15 to 2-3. However, by the time Cavan went down to 14 men, the question surrounding Sligo’s eventual winning margin had long since replaced any discussion regarding the destination of the spoils.
In bitterly cold and extremely windy conditions which were laced by spitting rain, Sligo eased their way to their third win from as many starts this season by making hay in the first half.
Given the difference in class between the sides, the only surprise was that the tie would ape the ‘game of two halves’ cliché.
Backed by the gusting wind, Sligo demonstrated a Midas touch in the opening moiety with the virtually unmarkable Keith Raymond helping himself to a hat-trick of goals in that period.
The strapping full-forward bagged his opening major in the 5th minute after latching onto a long, teasing delivery by Kieran Prior.
One minute later, Cavan fullback Mark Hayes was yellow carded and would become one of a number of players on the visitors’ side left threading on thin ice over the course of the 70 minutes-plus as tiredness and frustration came to the fore.
Cavan’s often rash and impetuous tackling proved grist to the mill of ace freetaker Eoin Comerford and his eight first half conversions served to pour salt into the blues’ gaping wound.
Raymond’s goals in the 9th (pen) and 17th helped leave the stand-out team cruising at the break; leading by 3-12 to 1-0 and nursing just a slight rash left by Hugh Briody’s opportunist goal for Cavan in the 27th minute.
The second half was a more even contest as, understandably and perhaps predictably, Sligo took their feet off the pedal somewhat, their think-tank began to empty the bench and Cavan – literally – threw caution to the wind in a bid to take the bad look off the scoreboard.
Briody bagged his second goal for Cavan three minutes after the restart but there was to be no Lazarus-like comeback.
Sligo had long since encamped themselves on Easy Street and it was left to substitute Kevin Gilmartin to put the icing on the cake for his side in the 62nd minute with a fine solo goal.
Sligo:
Kevin Brennan: Danny Keown, James Weir, Tom Brennan; Gerard O’Kelly-Lynch (0-4), Liam Reidy, Kevin Banks; Ronan Cox, Brian Shannon; Gary Cadden, Kieran Prior (0-2), Eoin Comerford (0-9, all frees); Joe Starr (0-1), Keith Raymond (3-2), Kevin O’Kennedy (0-1).
Subs; Niall Feehily for D Keown; Kevin Gilmartin (1-0) for G Cadden; Tony O’Kelly-Lynch for E Comerford; Ruairí Brennan for K O’Kennedy; Cathal Jordan for T Brennan.
Cavan:
Darren Sheridan; Mark Moffett, Mark Hayes, Darragh Brady; Ronan O’Hagan, Anthony Sheridan, Caolan Kelly; Paul Sheridan, John Sheanon (0-4, three frees); Diarmaid Carney (0-1), Kevin Conneely, Eugene Hill; Caoimhín Carney (0-1), Hugh Briody (2-0), Damien O’Reilly.
Subs; Neasán Neary for O’Hagan; Enda Shalvey for E Hill; Jack Barry for D O’Reilly; John Carney for H Briody.