Sligo fall short in a well-contested provincial final
Injuries ruled out Aoibhinn Conlon and Eabha Gonley, however.
Wind-assisted Roscommon opened the scoring with a point and this was erased when Rachel Spellman kicked the first of her five points after getting a pass from Lucy Henry, one of two players in Sligo’s starting XV that won an All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Senior ‘B’ title with St Attracta’s Community School last month.
Sligo had issues winning kickouts – their own and those of Roscommon – but wastefulness from their opponents, who kicked half a dozen wides in that first-half, meant Sligo weren’t punished as they could have been.
There was good play from Ava Canning and Amy McCarthy in Sligo’s half-back line and wing-forward Laura McGuire’s tidy point put Sligo 0-2 to 0-1 ahead by the 16th minute.
Sarah McDaniel sent a shot goalwards but it was foiled by the upright – a point would have been handy at this stage. Three points on the spin from Roscommon left Sligo with some work to do and they tried to hit back through Lucy Henry and Caoimhe Crawley.
Laura McGuire kicked her second point of the first-half, from a Katie McDonagh pass, and then Sligo thought they had goaled when Kate Smith got a hand to a free that dropped short in Roscommon’s goalmouth but the referee ruled that it had been a ‘square’ ball.
Sligo had no reason to fret over Roscommon’s one-point advantage at half-time, 0-4 to 0-3.
It was nip and tuck for the first 15 minutes of the second-half and Sligo,
The number of points scored by Roscommon’s Laura Glennon in last Sunday’s U-16 ‘B’ decider. even though they had the breeze, were unable to fully dictate matters. Rachel Spellman scored adroitly from play, after trading passes with Lucy Henry, to add to her earlier pointed free.
Sligo were still trailing, 0-6 to 0-5, when referee Colm Conway sent Ava
Canning to the sin bin after a challenge that he deemed to be worthy of such a sanction.
Roscommon took advantage to go two points up, 0-7 to 0-5, but a brace of pointed frees from Rachel Spellman brought Sligo level once more. The Rossies crept ahead again, 0-9 to 0-7,