Coen had one of his best Sligo outings
SIMILAR to the Laois game earlier in the year, Sligo took over last Saturday when Antrim were reduced to 14 players when we looked in bother.
The bottom line is we were in the draw for the next round of the qualifiers and will play Meath in Navan the weekend of 1st / 2nd July.
Things could have been different if the referee had shown a second yellow to Keelan Cawley when he fouled for the Antrim penalty which it would have been hard to argue against if given.
Instead the referee seemed more occupied in trying to ascertain if the foul was in the square or not, eventually given the penalty after consultation with his umpire.
Shortly after, the defining moment did come, when Antrim’s Jack Dowling was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Mark which also ended his involvement in his 54th championship game.
Even though Antrim responded with a very fortunate goal dropping in over Aidan Devaney’s head from a point attempt, however they weren’t to score again until the last few moments of the game as Sligo with numerical advantage took over.
The whole dynamic of the modern game can change when a team is reduced to fourteen as all of a sudden Sligo were able to push up on the Antrim kick out and still leave someone at home in a defensive position.
This forced the long kick- out and pre- vented automatic possession that Antrim were gaining from short kick- outs.
This together with the energy of Kyle Cawley and Gerard O’Kelly- Lynch both introduced into the game and the accuracy of Stephen Coen converting a number of difficult frees and points from play which swung the game back into Sligo’s favour.
The question is would we have won the game if it remained 15 on 15, not sure, the only thing I would say we looked a lot fitter than Antrim in the crucial last twenty minutes where we scored 12 unanswered points in this period.
The game started along expected lines with Antrim playing fourteen players behind the ball and then played counter attack football which frustrated us.
When we worked the ball at pass we opened them up on a couple of occasions but we didn’t do it consistently enough and panicked regularly when trying to negotiate our way through their rear guard turning over possession.
This was an area that was much improved in the second half that gave us a much better possession platform in this period.
There was a number of notable performances such as Brendan Egan at centre half back who is taking on responsibility always looking to take possession of the football from his goalkeeper from kickouts and supporting his fellow defenders.
Paddy O’Connor was another that can be pleased with his outing contributing two excellent scores from play when we were struggling to break them down in the first half.
Stephen Coen had one of his best half’s of football in the Sligo jersey with a very clinical show of shooting earning him my player of the match award.
It was good to see Niall Murphy starting and he needed that game to get going again.
Eoin McHugh was another that was going well until he picked up a nasty injury when his leg went from under him in the first half and hopefully he is not as bad as it seemed when stretchered off.
We will need to improve on this performance if we are going to advance to the third round of the qualifiers where we face a long journey to Navan to play Meath.
While Meath were well defeated by Kildare they are a good side with the added advantage of home advantage which makes this a difficult assignment but more on this next week.
The very best wishes to my own club St. Marys Under 14 squad which will compete in the National Féile Peil na nÓg 2017 by virtue of winning the Sligo Feile under 13 competition last October, which takes place this weekend in Cavan, Fermanagh and Monaghan.
National Féile Peil na nÓg which started in 1982 in Cavan and has grown in popularity year on year is a fantastic celebration of Gaelic Games and is a great opportunity for young players to showcase their talents on a national stage.
There will be teams from 29 counties in addition to teams from both North America and Britain hosted by 80 teams for the 2017 Féile na nÓg boys football tournament.
Also the very best to all other Sligo teams in involved this weekend.
While Meath were well defeated by Kildare they are a good side with the added advantage of home advantage which makes this a difficult assignment