Round-up: Electric Ireland Connacht MFC action

Electric Ireland Connacht MFC

Roscommon 1-13 Leitrim 0-2

Sligo 0-9 Mayo 0-8

Electric Ireland Connacht MFC champions Roscommon knew they were locked into this year’s provincial final before the game against Leitrim at King & Moffatt Dr. Hyde Park and so manager Shane Moran made 14 changes to his starting team, and still the Rossies were comfortable in recording a fourth consecutive victory.

Leitrim defended well into the breeze in the early stages of the opening half, restricting Roscommon to a couple of scores from Seán Duggan and Dylan Goode.

Roscommon started to put more and more pressure on Elvis Shehaj’s kickout from the Leitrim goal and a couple of two-pointers from Duggan and Cronan McLoughlin pushed the lead out to 0-10 to 0-0 at half-time, with Leitrim’s best chance a palmed effort from Colm McLaughlin that was well saved by Shane Carroll.

Given the strength of the breeze, retrieving a 10-point lead wasn’t off the cards entirely, but Roscommon’s explosive start to the second half completely crushed Leitrim’s hopes.

Sam Walsh teed up Conor Cryan for goal with Cillian McGowan and McLoughlin on the mark with points, and to compound Leitrim’s difficulty, the wind began to lose a little but of strength.

Scoring remained incredibly difficult with Hugh McGovern and Senan Kelly picking off Leitrim’s only points.

Mathematically, Leitrim are not entirely out of contention but they would need to beat Sligo by a landslide margin and get a favour from Galway against Mayo, so realistically it is the other three counties that are in contention for the two semi-final slots.

Sligo gave themselves a huge boost with their first win of the campaign, Ryan Lang kicking the winning score with a tremendous left-footed effort from out on the sideline to clinch an 0-9 to 0-8 win.

In dreadful weather at Kilcoyne Park in Tubbercurry, Sligo conceded the first score to Mayo wing-back Alexander Smyth but defended brilliantly for the remainder of the half, conceding just two more scores in the first quarter and getting to half-time just 0-6 to 0-1 behind, Conor Hoban adding to Mayo’s tally in stoppage time.

Sligo were back to within a point 12 minutes into the second half following Lang delivering the only two-pointer of the day, but Mayo dug their heels in and when Fiachra Ó Cinnseala blasted the ball over to put them two up with a little over five minutes remaining, they looked the more likely winners.

Instead Oisín Gormley and Lang levelled the game with two points in as many minutes, and the corner forward’s magnificent winner means that Sligo will be sure of a semi-final berth if they beat Leitrim next week.

For Mayo, assuming Sligo win, they will need to beat Galway by three points or more to edge out the Tribesmen on scoring difference.