Friday, March 11

EirGrid Connacht U21 Football Championship Quarter-Final

Roscommon v Galway, Kiltoom, 7.30pm

The Connacht U21 Football Championship gets underway in Kiltoom on Friday night, with this game having been moved from Wednesday to this evening.

Mark Dowd's Roscommon are the defending provincial champions at U21 level and three years ago, this generation of footballers reached the All-Ireland minor semi-final at Croke Park, where they were narrowly beaten by Tyrone.

However, injuries have taken their toll on Roscommon during a challenging pre-season, with Dowd having to go through an underwhelming Hastings Cup campaign without several important players.

Senior players Ultan Harney and Diarmuid Murtagh were among those, and while Harney is not yet available for selection, the gifted Murtagh will almost certainly start against Galway, having recently returned from injury. Several other important Roscommon players, Jack Earley among them, remain on the absentee list.

Galway are managed by Gerry Fahy and the Oranmore-Maree man has named his selection for Friday, with three senior playerrs - Enda Tierney, Eamonn Brannigan and Paul Mannion - all included, that trio having already seen gametime for Kevin Walsh's side in the Allianz Football League.

Goalkeeper Tadhg O'Malley and forwards Tierney and Brannigan all played in last year's narrow Connacht U21 final defeat to Roscommon, but this is largely a new Galway selection.

The winners will face Sligo in the last four.

ROSCOMMON: TBC

**GALWAY: **Tadhg O'Malley (Lettermore); Luke Burke (Caltra), Oisin Canney (Clonbur), Rory Green (Killanin); Kieran Molloy (Corofin), Enda Tierney (Oughterard), Brian Shaughnessy (Ballinasloe); Michael Daly (Mountbellew/Moylough), Peter Cooke (Moycullen); Jason Lyons (Barna), Eamonn Brannigan (St Michael's), Paul Mannion (Kilconly); Antaine Ó Laoi (An Spideal), Eoin Finnerty (Mountbellew/Moylough), Colm Mannion (Mountbellew/Moylough).

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