Ulster winners are up next
SLIGO minors now have four weeks before meeting the Ulster champions either Derry or Cavan in the All-Ireland quarter final. Manager David Cummins is getting his side ready to fight again after Sunday’s Connacht final defeat to Galway. After a good start for the Years men, Galway came back to win their third title in a row. The Sligo manager praised his side for continuing to fight right until the end. “In fairness to the guys, they kept fighting all the way to the end, on another day it could have gone our way with the breaks of the ball.
“We decided to go with the breeze in the first half and we went four points to one up at one stage.
“We’ll have to look at the video analysis and talk about what happened after that.
“I think we may have been taking too much out of the ball and were caught in our tackling.
“When you look at the first half, we were playing with the breeze and we had eight wides, normally the lads are very good at taking these chances.
“In our semi-final with Leitrim, we scored 15 out of 19 chances, with Galway it was something like 10 out of 22,” he said. There are many positives to be taken overall he added. “When you think about it, it’s a big occasion for such a young team.
“These lads are still 17 and 18 years old and we can’t forget about the fantastic individual performances on the day.” He said that Galway played clinically and took their opportunities. “I think they were there to be taken. They managed the match very well and got themselves opportunities to hurt us so they were clinical in that sense.” Although Sligo lost on Sunday, it’s not over yet for the young team.
The manager added: “It’s not finished yet. We have four weeks to prepare for the Quarter final so we will have a look at things and the guys are going back to their clubs in the meantime for the League. “I know with football in Sligo you want to win something, but we also have to develop players who will progress to the senior set-up in the years to come and there are definitely a number who will make the step up to senior. We will keep on fighting,” the manager said going into the Quarter-final.