London were a test for Leitrim
NEXT up for Sligo is the qualifiers which will take place on Saturday 17th June. Since the inception of the qualifiers in 2001 Sligo have always embraced this route to the quarter- finals with some of our most memorable victories in recent times, in addition to the exposure of teams that we don’t play on a regular basis such as Dublin, Kerry, Tyrone, Cork, Kildare, Down and Armagh to name a few since the system changed.
In this year’s draw we will be in group 1A, which is an initial group of eight teams which gives us the possibility of playing Wicklow, Longford, Antrim, Waterford, Derry, loser of Louth/ Meath or loser of Laois/ Kildare.
The first team out will have home advantage with the most notable exception being that if we draw a team that played away from home in round one of last year’s competition they would have automatic home advantage.
Four teams fit into this category, Waterford who nearly caused one of the biggest upsets of all time against Cork last weekend, Longford, Wicklow and potentially Louth if they lose to Meath.
In a nutshell it gives us about a twenty five percent chance of a home draw.
If we overcome the first round we will play one of four losing semi- finalists in Round Two.
After this round, there will be four teams left in group 1A which will play each other to leave two teams who will play two losing provincial finalists in round 4 with the winners heading for the quarter finals.
It’s all about the first draw as all teams are in the same position having lost their opening game with every team looking for home advantage. More on this once the draw has been made.
Last Sunday Leitrim survived after a fright in London with the hosts scoring sixteen times compared to Leitrim’s thirteen scores.
By all accounts it was an exciting game with goals the main difference at the newly revamped and renamed McGovern Park in Ruislip.
This was a young Leitrim side playing without their talisman Emlyn Mulligan with many predicting an upset.
Liam Gavaghan whose father is from Sligo had an outstanding game for London and was the game’s big personality scoring eight points. Similar to Sligo’s game in New York this was a pressure game for Leitrim and they now face Roscommon in the Hyde. Leitrim had a super sub in the guise of Ronan Kennedy who came off the bench to bag two crucial goals in the second half when London were in the ascendency.
Next weekend there are a number of semi- final positions up for grabs between teams who would be seen as very level in standard with the exception of Carlow’s plight against Dublin in Portlaoise. This game will be a blessing for O’Rourke, Spillane and their soap box where the disparity in standards will allow them plenty of rehearsed rhetoric. In the other games Meath/ Louth and Kildare/ Laois in Leinster and Down/ Armagh in Ulster all at similar levels. We will have some interest in the first two games here with the loser’s potential opponents in the qualifiers. Kildare will definitely be too strong all the same against Laois, but after a good league campaign I feel Louth have the potential to put it up to Meath. In the game up North between two former heavy weights that have fallen dramatically from grace in recent times. Down with home advantage against an Armagh side who slipped up on the last day of the league and failed to get promoted after what looked like a good league campaign. I feel Down who survived relegation from two to three on the last day should be good enough with the benefit of home advantage.