A general view of Markievicz Park. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Electric Ireland Connacht MFC
Roscommon 1-10 Galway 1-7
Sligo 0-9 Leitrim 0-8
Roscommon put last week’s big defeat to Mayo behind them with a three-point win over Galway at Dr. Hyde Park this evening, while a good week for Sligo football continued as they made it three points from two games with an 0-9 to 0-8 victory over Leitrim in the second round of games in the Electric Ireland Connacht MFC.
Roscommon also had a good week so far, clinching their place in the provincial U-20 final with their big win over Leitrim on Wednesday, but James Duignan’s minors were under pressure to get something from their home game with Galway.
The Rossies got out to dream start when wing forward Alan Conroy turned down the option of an easy point and instead stepped inside the Galway goalkeeper to slide in a goal to open the scoring in the third minute, and when Shay McGuinness, Colin Murray and Declan Kennedy followed up with points, a five-point gap had opened up by the midway point of the half.
Playing with the wind, Galway settled into the game with three frees on the spin and they carried this momentum into the second half when Donnacha Naughton and Cian Rafferty pointed early to bring them back within a point, but that was to be as close as they got.
Roscommon hit the next three, including a wonderful strike off the outside of the boot from Dara Curran, but that was cancelled out when David Kilraine fielded a high shot that hung in the breeze and slammed it to the roof of the Roscommon net from close range.
Roscommon picked up where they left off however, scoring three of the last four points to pick up a 1-10 to 1-7 victory.
It was even tighter at Markievicz Park, where Sligo and Leitrim traded scores in a contest that never had more than a point in it, up until Niall Duffy’s free with the very last play of the game gave Sligo an 0-9 to 0-8 win.
Defences were on top throughout this game but particularly in the opening quarter, when the only scores were Daire McCabe’s opener for Leitrim, and an excellent towering kick in reply from Matthew Walsh.
Leitrim would have been the happier team at the break, with the sides tied at 0-3 each and the wind set to favour the visitors, and even though Duffy kicked some excellent points in the second half for Sligo, Leitrim looked good when McCabe and Jack Kelly pointed in quick succession to put Leitrim one up with five minutes remaining.
Sligo won a 45 and brought Aaron Healy off the bench to deliver a majestic kick, high and perfect into the wind, to level the game, and that set the stage for Duffy to win the game with his sixth of the night in the third minute of stoppage time.