Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship Sligo seek to close the gap

CONNACHT GAA SENIOR FOOTBALL C’SHIP SEMI-FINAL: Sligo v Galway

Saturday, April 20: Markievicz Park, Sligo (3.30pm)

WITH Sligo facing skilled opponents who devoured them in last year’s Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship final, any portent that this might be a closer affair is welcome.

The fact that Sligo have home advantage for Saturday’s provincial semi-final against Galway is a positive sign.

But if Padraic Joyce’s Galway are intent on winning a third successive Nestor Cup followed by a memorable impact in the Sam Maguire Cup (they’ll want to do better that last year’s unexpected exit at the hands of Mayo) then they won’t baulk at having to take care of business away from their Pearse Stadium stronghold.

If the scenic setting of Markievicz Park is to give Sligo some luck, fans will recall those meetings with Galway in 1995, 1996 and 1999 when the Tribesmen and Sligo played out thrilling draws at the Sligo town venue.

In 1995 and 1996 it was Sligo that earned a second bite at the cherry thanks to equalisers from Declan McGoldrick and Paul Taylor respectively.

Galway were defending All-Ireland champions in 1999 and would have lost but for a levelling free from the aforementioned Padraic Joyce, who now is Galway’s manager. Sligo, of course, lost all three replays at Tuam Stadium.

Another sour note from that decade was a 6-18 to 0-4 defeat to Galway in 1990 – a quarter-final result that puts last year’s 2-20 to 0-12 outcome

CLOSE WATCH: Sligo defender Evan Lyons keeps tabs on Galway’s Shane Walsh during last year’s Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship final at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, Castlebar.

at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park into perspective.

That 18-point drubbing at the hands of Galway at Markievicz Park in 2000, 0-22 to 0-4, with Sligo failing to score in the first-half, is another sorry tale almost buried by the passing of time.

While Sligo beat Galway in the 1975 campaign (one that yielded the county’s second-ever Nestor Cup) and also overcame a star-studded Galway outfit in 2007, when Sligo last won the provincial trophy, Sligo’s overall record against Galway has been dreadful.

Sligo have won just one of their last five championship meetings with Galway – a semi-final in 2012, with Galway having the edge in 2014 (semi-final), 2018 (semi-final), 2019 (semi-final) and last year’s final.

Such has been Galway’s power that their combined winning margin from

FIXTURES

Saturday, April 20

SEMI-FINAL: Sligo v Galway (Markievicz Park, 3.30pm) (Barry Tiernan)

The number of years since Sligo last beat Galway in the Connacht Senior Football Championship. those victories in 2018, 2019 and 2023 is 47 points.

But Sligo still want to know how much better they are compared to last year.

Galway are still a Division One outfit, even if they only won two of their seven games in this year’s Allianz Football League, while Sligo were comfortable in Division Three and were actually on the cusp of pushing

Sunday, April 21

SEMI-FINAL: Roscommon v Mayo (Dr Hyde Park, Roscommon, 4pm)* *Live on RTE.

up a level.

Manager Tony McEntee would rather be taking on Galway with the likes of Luke Towey and Pat Spillane available, while the wider panel options have been reduced due to three players leaving the panel (Conan Marren, Joseph Keaney and Alan Reilly) although it is unlikely any of this trio would have been seeing game time on Saturday.

Sligo, ideally, would go into the Tailteann Cup on the back of a gutsy performance against Galway.

Sligo’s season must be framed on what they can do in the second tier championship, with a semi-final place not out of reach, and a second successive campaign in the Sam Maguire Cup will bring some potentially exciting games on paper but probable heavy beatings in reality.

Galway, even with doubts about the availability of several key players, among them Johnny Heaney, Tomo Culhane, Shane Walsh, Damien Comer and Cillian McDaid, will set the bar high.

Still, they won’t rumble over Sligo as they did London in the quarter-final, the same weekend that Sligo were doing a number on Leitrim.

While it would serve Sligo better to be trying to win the Tailteann Cup rather than just be in the Sam Maguire Cup, if they overcome Galway then they will be one of the participants in this year’s top tier championship.

Saturday should tell Sligo just where they’re at.