McEntee praises Sligo’s young guns

SLIGO manager Tony McEntee said after their nine-point win over neighbours Leitrim that he was very happy to see his side advance to their semi-final meeting with Galway.

Sligo were particularly impressive in the second half and their lead never looked in doubt.

Debutants Canice Mulligan, last year’s U20 Connacht winning captain, Eoghan Smith and Lee Deignan were particularly impressive with captain Niall Murphy leading the scoring with a tally of five points.

However Leitrim were down a number of players through U20 duties and also late injuries and sickness.

Sligo now meet the Tribesmen who defeated London by 29 points.

The former All-Ireland winner said; “I am very pleased that we had a very good second half there. I think the first half was a nine point lead at half-time and to be honest, in the first half, we weren’t very overly pleased, we had a lot of shooting opportunities from bad angles and that so it put us in a position that maybe with that breeze, it was probably a draw at half-time if you take the breeze into account. “But the second half, I thought we were very well controlled and we played a lot of good football and we were well organised and we created plenty of opportunities.

“So as a whole, very pleased how that went,” the Armagh native said.

He said he was impressed how his side managed both the conditions and the game in the second half.

“It is a credit to the Leitrim officials here that the ground was in such good shape you know with the conditions and the weather that we had there recently.

“It allowed for some reasonable football to be played, you could run the ball through the hands, you could kick if the breeze didn’t carry the ball away so it allowed a bit of football and Leitrim to be fair to them came here to play a bit of football as well.

“So I think that gave us all an opportunity.

“The wind was particularly a factor with kick-outs. See that first half, when we got our period of dominance, it was because Leitrim were unable to get the ball out from a kick-out perspective.

“We were worried about that second half that we would be under so much pressure with the breeze and the opposition that we wouldn’t be able to get the ball out, but it didn’t really materialise.

“The long kick-outs, we won our share of breaking ball and I think we have to be pleased really with how we managed that game out in the second half.”

He said for some of the U20 players to get a championship win under their belt was also another positive from a Sligo perspective.

“We’ve had new championship starts for Canice Mulligan, Lee Deignan and Eoghan Smith and they all played really well.

“Canice as well had a superb first half and he was great throughout the game as a whole but the first half when we were struggling parts, Canice was the stand-out person we had on the field.

“Twenty or 21 years of age really makes no difference, if football is in you and the ability is there, then you’re well able to play as he showed,” he added.