McEntee rues the draw in the rain Allianz Football League Division Three Sloppy Sligo are staying put after Offaly stalemate at Markievicz
Sligo surrender a two-point lead in a result that ends promotion hopes for Tony McEntee’s men Allianz Football League Division Three - Round 6 Sligo 0-13 Offaly 1-10
SUCCESSIVE games without victory has put paid to Sligo’s chances of Allianz Football League promotion.
Division Three consolidation isn’t a bad consolation prize despite Sligo wishing to be in and around the title race come the business end of the season.
That might have been the case if Offaly weren’t allowed to slip away from a damp Markievicz Park with a draw courtesy of two late points last Saturday afternoon.
The 0-13 to 1-10 sharing of the spoils with the Leinster men, almost two weeks on from that away humbling at the hands of Down, left Sligo boss Tony McEntee bemused as the rain continued to fall at the drenched Sligo town venue.
SLIGO SCORERS 2024
AFL DIVISION THREE
(15 scorers so far)
Niall Murphy (1-17, 1-0 pen, 11f, 2 ‘mark’), Sean Carrabine (1-17, 11f); Patrick O’Connor (0-9), Alan McLoughlin (1-6);
Cian Lally (1-2); FOUR POINTS: Pat Spillane (0-4), Darragh Cummins (0-4), Nathan Mullen (1-1);
Paul McNamara (1-0); Aidan Devaney (1f, 1 ‘45’), Luke Towey; Jack Lavin, Eoghan Smith, Lee Deignan, Paul Kilcoyne.
He stated: “I’m totally disappointed – I cannot understand how we didn’t manage to get the win. We were really good in the first-half, controlling large parts of the game and attacking. But we made simple mistakes.
“In the second-half I’m not quite sure what happened – but there was indecision or bad decision making, bad execution of simple skills near the end.
“This left Offaly in the game and not us ending up with a five or six-point win. We were five or six points better than them and we should have been.
“This is the toughest result [of the year] to take because we were in a position to be fighting for promotion and we were in total control – somehow we managed to lose that control.”
While it appeared as if Sligo invited Offaly’s pressure and tried to absorb it, McEntee maintained that errors and misplaced passes (in tricky conditions for assured ball handling it must be said) meant that Offaly gained a foothold in Sligo territory.
With Westmeath to come in Sligo’s final Division Three game of 2024, then the Connacht GAA Senior Football the matchday squad, was brought on as Sligo turned up the heat on a damp afternoon.
Points from Paul Kilcoyne, Sean Carrabine, who converted a free, Niall Murphy and Nathan Mullen overturned the interval deficit and put Sligo ahead, 0-11 to 1-6, with 43 minutes gone. Niall Murphy’s point was the pick of these Sligo scores and there might have been a goal chance, too, had Paul McNamara’s pass meant for Sean Carrabine not been overhit.
Even with Cormac Egan buzzing about, Offaly didn’t bother the scoreboard in the second-half until the 51st