Excellent effort is praised by O’Neill
Eli Rooney
James Cronin (St Mary’s), Clyde Regan (St Mary’s), Eamon Keane (Drumcliffe-Rosses Point), David Lyons (Eastern Harps), Liam Higgins (Eastern Harps) (0-1), Oran Harte (Coolera-Strandhill), Cian Gallagher (Curry), Eoin Tuffy (c) (Enniscrone-Kilglass), Conor Walsh (Eastern Harps) (0-1), Eamon O’Mahony (Drumcliffe-Rosses Point), Cian Carty (Eastern Harps) (0-3, 2f), Niall Kenny (Shamrock Gaels) (0-1), Aaron Lang (St Molaise Gaels) (0-1), Eli Rooney (St Mary’s) (1-3, 1f), Michael Carroll (Drumcliffe-Rosses Point) (1-2)
Subs used: Josh McHugh (Eastern Harps), Darragh Sweeney (Owenmore Gaels), Cillian Duggan (Eastern Harps), Dara Mostyn (Geevagh), Jack Hayes (St Molaise Gaels)
Subs not used: Adam Kelly (St Molaise Gaels), Jim Molloy (Eastern Harps), Oisin Devlin (St Molaise Gaels), Keith Cotter (Owenmore Gaels), Kern O’Doherty (Coolaney-Mullinabreena), Evan Finnerty (St Patrick’s), Eoghan Nerney (Eastern Harps), Cathal Walsh (Curry), Barry McNamara (St John’s), Diarmuid Dunleavy (Drumcliffe-Rosses Point)
Additional panel members: Michael Currid (Owenmore Gaels), Conor Lang (St Farnan’s), Cian Foran (Tubbercurry), Conor
Wexford:
First-half response. Wexford’s 14th minute goal brought them to within a point of Sligo, 0-5 to 1-1. Sligo, who didn’t panic, hit back with five unanswered points. They also kept Wexford scoreless for the remainder of the opening period.
WHILE not an exact barometer as to how Sligo might fare in next year’s Connacht GAA Minor Football Championship, a competition no longer an unattainable dream for Sligo teens, success in the Fr Manning Cup tells us that the county’s U-17 panel for 2022 should be a reasonable one.
Although at times they made hard work of keeping Wexford at bay last Saturday afternoon, Sligo deserved their eventually comfortable seven-point win – albeit thanks to 1-1 from Eli Rooney in the closing stages. “It was a terrific performance from the lads – all 20 players that we used gave everything they had,” said Sligo manager David O’Neill, who will continue as team boss for next year’s
Connacht
GAA Minor
Football Championship.
“I’m delighted that the boys put in the effort that they did and got the result as well.”
O’Neill, a Meath native, was expecting periods of the game where Wexford would have both possession and scoring opportunities.
It was up to Sligo to keep the potential damage to a minimum and keep their focus.
“It doesn’t matter who you are playing, at club or county level, the opposition will have their own patches where they’ll come at you – it is how you react to that and how you weather the storm.
“In fairness, the guys stood up [to the Wexford pressure], we won some dirty ball and forced turnovers.” He continued: “We got a clinical goal near the end. Eli [Rooney] got a very, very good goal – that settled us and gave us a little bit of buffer again. “I have to give credit to Wexford. They are a terrific outfit with some really good footballers.”
Already thoughts are turning to next year when Sligo will be looking to reclaim the Kilcoyne Cup, a provincial trophy famously won in 2021.
As in previous years, Sligo will look to compete in the Ulster GAA Minor Football League.
O’Neill added: “This result sets us up massively for the coming months.
“We’ve no competitive games during autumn but we’ll restructure the squad and concentrate on a couple of aspects. There’s a lot of work to do still.”
MAIN PICTURE: The Sligo U-16 Gaelic football squad that won the Fr Manning Cup final last Saturday with a defeat of Wexford. ABOVE: Sligo players receive a few final instructions from management prior to throw-in at Longford’s Pearse Park.