McEntee pleased by the second-half display in Carrick

JOB DONE sums it up. Sligo went to Carrick-onShannon, beat the hosts and have set up a Connacht GAA Senior Football Championship semifinal against holders Galway.

“I’m happy with the outcome, particularly the second-half – against that strong breeze we controlled the game and we looked like a decent team,” said Sligo boss Tony McEntee after the 0-15 to 0-6 defeat of Leitrim last Sunday.

When it comes to GAA championship games, every day is a learning day and McEntee,

will take learnings from this contest, however onesided it became.

“From the first-half there are things that we need to improve on – but that’s fine. This was our first championship game of the year and you expect improvements as you go on.”

Sligo’s 15 wides didn’t necessarily annoy him – 11 of these came during the windassisted first-half – but it was where some of these shots were taken from that he had an issue with. “In the first-half it was more about the places [on the pitch] the boys were kicking from – I guess they thought that the wind would be able to carry the ball over.

“But it was quite a difficult wind to play with – players could have taken shots from better positions but if the shot is on you have to take it.

“There were also some issues with our handling, but part of that can be put down to the wind, but for the most part we tried to play football – Leitrim also tried to play their game as well.”

The Armagh man again emphasised how Sligo controlled the second-half – when playing against the breeze – and how possession was used wisely.

He also commented on the Avant Money Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada pitch surface which is due to be worked on in the coming weeks.

“The field was in great shape for the time of year – we were expecting it to be wetter because of the rain and the bad weather we’ve had recently.”

The Sligo manager was also delighted that his defenders curbed the influence of Leitrim forward Ryan O’Rourke.

“Ryan is a very good footballer – he had a great season in Division Four and he is a player who has to be respected.

“We had Nathan Mullen on him during the firsthalf and when Nathan got a yellow card we put Evan

Lyons on him [O’Rourke] for the second-half.

“The two of them [Mullen and Lyons] did a really good job on him. I’m also very pleased how the other defenders supported the lads in their job.”

Canice Mulligan, new to this unforgiving arena, was hailed by McEntee as “Sligo’s best player”.

“In the first-half he was head and shoulders above everyone else. He is a superb player and a superb athlete – he is somebody who plays far beyond his years.

“He knows what to do in possession and he knows where to be on the pitch.

“Credit to him – he was superb and he got a lot of support from other players in the secondhalf.”

McEntee, meanwhile, expects that the upcoming semi-final with Division One outfit Galway will take place at Markievicz Park on Saturday week, April 20.

He wasn’t surprised at the ease with which they took care of London, who only won one game in Division Four of this year’s Allianz Football League.

“Galway are an excellent team, very well drilled and with some superb players. Even with injuries Galway have good players to come into their team.”

He added: “It’s a game we’ll look forward to. Our challenge now is to see if we have closed the gap from the last time we played them. Let’s go out and play a bit of football against them [Galway] and see how it goes.”

The only way that Sligo can play in this year’s Sam Maguire Cup is by reaching the Connacht final and this means they have to secure arguably one of the year’s biggest results later this