SLIGO GAA’S NATIONAL LEAGUE FIXTURES FOR 2021:
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SLIGO’S Senior Gaelic footballers and the county’s Senior hurlers both begin their respective National League campaigns next month.
The Gaelic footballers, now with new boss Tony McEntee at the helm, commence their Allianz Football League
Division Four North season with a home fixture against Connacht rivals Leitrim on Sunday, May 16 (Markievicz Park, 3pm).
McEntee’s first competitive outing as Sligo boss is the only home game for his charges in the round robin part of Division Four North.
Sligo are away against Ulster outfit Antrim on Sunday, May 23 (Corrigan Park, Belfast, 4pm) and also have to travel to Louth for a game on Sunday, May 30 (Haggardstown, Dundalk, 3pm). Finishing in the top two of this four-team section will put Sligo into the Division Four semi-finals, while the group’s bottom two progress to the Division Four Shield semi-final. Sligo, who last played an Allianz Football League fixture on October 24, 2020, will therefore get a minimum of four games in this year’s competition.
On the other side of Division Four is the three-team Division Four South. This comprises of Waterford, Wexford and Carlow, who are managed by ex-Sligo boss Niall Carew. London are not taking part.
In this section the top two progress to the Division Four semi-finals and the bottom team takes part in the Division Four Shield.
Sligo’s recent record in the Allianz Football League has been substandard.
In the last two campaigns, 2019 and 2020, they managed to win just three of their 14 games. These results included seven straight losses in 2019 when they were relegated from Division Three.
The hurlers, meanwhile, have four games to look forward to in Division 3A of the Allianz Hurling League.
Last year’s Division 3B champions have a ‘bye’ in round one and so don’t play until Saturday, May 22 when they welcome Armagh to Markievicz Park (throw-in 2pm).
Their round three fixture against Longford on Saturday, May 29 is also at Markievicz Park (3pm start) but they are away for the challenges of Tyrone on Saturday, June 12 (Healy Park, Omagh, 2pm) and Monaghan on Saturday, June 19 (Grattan Park, Inniskeen, 2pm). In normal circumstances
Sligo would have had a fifth game in this tier – against Warwickshire – but the UKbased Warwickshire are not competing in this year’s Allianz Hurling League due to Covid-19
restrictions on travel.
If the Padraig Mannionmanaged Sligo top their group after five rounds then they will be promotion as Division 3A winners. The county that finishes bottom is automatically relegated to Division 3B for 2022.
Sligo’s previous fixture in the Allianz Hurling League was last October’s Division 3B decider when they overcame Leitrim by four points at the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence.
That final was Ballygar native Padraig Mannion’s first game in charge.