Round-up: Friday's Electric Ireland Connacht MFC action
A general view of Dr Hyde Park. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Electric Ireland Connacht MFC
Roscommon 2-8 Sligo 0-8
Mayo 3-8 Leitrim 0-4
With one round of games to play in the Electric Ireland Connacht MFC before the knockout action begins in earnest, Mayo have locked down their place in this year’s provincial final thanks to a 3-8 to 0-4 win over Leitrim at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, and Roscommon will play a semi-final on the back of their 2-8 to 0-8 victory at Dr. Hyde Park over Sligo.
This time next week Sligo will play Mayo knowing that a win or a draw will give them the opportunity to avenge tonight’s defeat to the Rossies, but if they can’t pick up something from that game, they’ll need either Leitrim to do them a favour by denying Galway a win, or for a combined swing in scoring difference of less than eight points between the games in Sligo and Carrick-on-Shannon.
Wet and greasy conditions made scoring difficult at the Hyde this evening and that was certainly the case in the first quarter, when Cathal Gilligan’s point for Sligo was the only score up until Dara Curran’s equaliser in the 16th minute.
Strokestown’s Seán McDonnell was one of four players drafted into the Roscommon team by manager James Duignan from the side that beat Leitrim last time out, and he nudged his team into the lead two minutes later, and then sent in a towering high ball that led to the game’s first goal.
His skyscraper from 50 metres out was well-fielded by Alan Conroy, and a quick handpass into Dean Casey left the full forward with a simple finish to the net. Niall Duffy kicked two frees to keep Sligo in the game but two points from Stephen Tighe made it 1-5 to 0-3 at the break, and McDonnell effectively settled the tie when collected a measured handpass from Dara Curran and rolled in the second Roscommon goal with a precise finish.
Sligo kicked four of the last five points – or to be more accurate, they kicked three, while Roscommon also sliced a bizarre ‘own-point’ over their own crossbar – to keep it all finely poised in advance of the final round of games.
In Castlebar, Leitrim did their best to hold their own in the first half and here too, the score was 0-1 each after 16 minutes, and 0-2 each five minutes later, with Jack Kelly registering a nice point for Karl Foley’s away side, who were looking for their first points of this campaign.
A run of three in a row for Mayo opened up a bit of a gap but the momentum shifted decisively in Mayo’s favour when Oisín Deane pounced on a loose pass in the Leitrim defence and after forcing a spill, he curved a majestic ground shot up and into the net from 30 metres out to make it 1-7 to 0-3 just two minutes into the second half.
Another quarter hour followed that was low on scoring, with just a free from Deane added to the board, but two goals in three minutes from Kobe McDonald and Evan Walsh ensured a comfortable conclusion to what is a third win in a row for the early pacesetters in the west.
