Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WARY OF SCORING AN EOGHAN GOAL
EOGHAN KERIN insists Galway will have to be on guard as Sligo come calling.
After a fine Division One campaign and another win over Mayo in their Championship opener, Galway are red hot favourites to reach a third successive provincial final for the first time since 2009.
Galway boss Kevin Walsh cut his inter-county managerial teeth with Sligo and steered them to Championship wins over his native county in 2010 and ‘12.
Tribe defender Kerin said: “I think Kevin was up there for four or five years and Adrian Marren and all those players that would have worked under him are still playing.
“They’d always be the underdog, whether it be playing Galway, Mayo or Roscommon so you always have to respect them any day you go out.
“They’d be coming down to Galway and people would already be writing them off but we can’t afford to disrespect them in any way because they’ll probably relish the underdog tag.”
Kerin is particularly familiar with Sligo midfielder Niall Murphy, whom he was in college with last year.
“I know how good Niall is because he was on the Aussie Rules trip last year and he was unlucky, he was sick for the first game.
“He’s a class act so if you give him, Kyle Cawley and all these lads space they’ll hurt you.
“We played them in a couple of challenge games a couple of years ago and they’re a really good footballing team if you give them space.
“I didn’t see much of the London game but by all accounts it was over at half-time.
“They’re coming in pretty much under the radar but when they needed to win a game in the League, the last one against Derry, they won it.
“They’ll be tough opposition.”
Kerin, meanwhile, says Galway’s ambitions go beyond merely reaching the last eight stage of the Championship.
“We’re not looking past the Sligo game but you’d like to think you can compete in the top four and we proved that during the League.”