Messages

Good luck to our last remaining representative in this championship on Sunday: Dr. Hyde. In case Mayo lads are wondering why it always rains in Hyde Park (it doesn't of course), well that a good look at that lovely coast you have for what happens is that by "commodius vicus of recirculation" to quote Joyce (not Padraig), clouds rise and arrive over Hyde and in the words of McGahern then piss down on the Holy Catholics of Connacht.

Very much looking forward to this game. Was there in 2012 and thought Sligo should have won and AOS was the difference that day when he came on as a sub and did a Willie Joe type rousing catch and scored an even more rousing point. It will be interesting to see if the Mayo backs cope better with Sligo's diagonal balls that our farcical efforts and the pulling the full forward out to create space for the corners to create havoc. I must say while I am a big fan of Marren, he is fortunate to be playing given the unprovoked punch in the stomach to Cathal Shine while Cormac Reilly stood their watching but Cormac as we know doesn't see things that are and sees things that aren't.

Will be a major surprise if Mayo don't win. But both teams are only playing their second game. Could be some serious cobwebs on display and I don't mean the seats in the stand.

I though Maurice Deegan was the ref.

Does anyone know if the Sligo v Ros match is on any radio stations? What's the Ros radio called? Is it  Shanonside?
Good luck with the trip Sligonian hope there are no delays.

Fair chance it will be on ocean. They had all of the Leitrim game on.

Listened to the game online on holidays. Sounded like a brilliant second half display with the full forward line unmarkable at times. Seems  that egan done a good job to curtail bradshaw going forward. Great to get to the Connacht Final again. Well done to all concerned. We always have a good year display wise when we go to NY.

Kerry v Down (Down +4.5) Down
Tyrone v Dublin (Dublin +3.5) Tyrone
Roscommon v Cork (Roscommon +8.5) Cork
Meath v Kildare (Meath +0.5) Kildare Meath

Kildare v Monaghan (Monaghan +0.5)  --  Monaghan  --   BONUS
Dublin v Louth (Louth +3.5)  --  Louth
Limerick V Cork (Limerick +4.5)  --  Cork  -- 
Down v Sligo (Sligo +0.5)  --   Sligo Bonus

A lot of the problem with the depth in the squad goes back in my opinion to the U-21's. We need to nurture a new full back and one of the better prospects for this position was played at midfield in U-21 and got only one FBD game at FB so no cover there. CHB has been a problem for a long time and Quinn was doing fine until his injury. Phillips did fine against Mayo but the graph has been on a sharp downward spiral since. A pity that his only run of games at 6 has come when he is past his best as a footballer. Always thought he could have been a good CHB if given a chance earlier in his Sligo career but there were probably reasons why it never happened.

On the team - I'm going to disagree with Mano and Sligonian slightly. So many players played badly you could make a case for 8-10 changes. That would be nuts. So long as we don't start any injured players this time I'll go with it with swift action for anyone not doing the business. Mullen should not have been dropped for the last day in any event. Sweeney is good enough but never performs when he starts so you can't start him.

I take your point, but CHB has to be changed at least especially when Quinns fit. We'll see, hopefully the management will be wise to who has recovered mentally and who has not from last week, you learn alot from body language, and sharpness in training/warm up on that front.

Are any of ye going?

Defo going. Many people who I talked to and would ordinarily consider fair weather fans are going. I would expect a decent crowd to go. Its only right that these players get our full support on Saturday.
As Paddy has alluded to a few times already the weight of expectation within the county last Sunday was something that the players will have never experienced before. Its something I have never experienced before following the County team since the days we played div 4 league games in ballymote. Ocean Fm have a lot to answer for with regards to the sh*te that was being talked before last Sunday.
Hopefully with the monkey off our back we can play without fear and at a higher tempo, something that was lacking last Sunday bar a 10 minute spell in the second half. There will be no time for hesitation tommorrow evening. If the pass is on let it off quick and never mind the repercussions if it fails.
I like others have had serious doubts about our FB since the Mayo game, but what credible alternative to we have without upsetting the rest of the defence? Our midfield came in for serious criticsm on sunday but I lay most of the blame for lack of possesion with our half back and half forward line. Cregg won almost every break going without anyone near him. Nothwithstanding the fact that Costelloe was very good, David Casey won serious ball in the first half and set up scores and scored one himself.  Mark Breheny has been brilliant at hoovering up breaking ball from chf all year and I cant recall him winning one on Sunday. For us to have any chance against Down our midfielders are going to have to break ball and Davey, Cawley, O'Hara, Costelloe and Breheny are going to have to win the same amount of ball as the Mayo and Galway games.
I found it strange Coen was given only a few minutes last Sunday considering his record against Ormsby at u-21 level. Hopefully he is sprung earlier this week.
I hope the lads dont go out feeling sorry for themselves but from what I heard during the week they are chomping at the bit to get on with it and try and get to Croker. Lets hope that not more cheap talk. Best of luck to the lads and hope we do it.

Firstly the best of congrats to Roscommon - best team on the day, fully deserving winners of the match and rightly proud Connacnt champions.

On the way out of McHale Pk today there was a lad on the phone telling someone that "they were technically the best team on paper". He was wearing a white shirt so I'm taking it he's from Sligo. Sadly for us, football is played in grass - that must be where we went wrong!!.

Seriously though, while I'm disappointed, I'm not overly suprised. I don't agree with the view expressed here by some and indeed I believe on TV this afternoon that Sligo were complacent and thought they only had to turn up.  That is a lazy view expressed by people who were probably themselves the ones saying that but who don't know the first thing about what Sligo were thinking or feeling... or indeed what many, or indeed any, team(s) might be thinking.

The starting point for Sligo today was in their heads alright but it wasn't cockiness - it was the fear of failure; the "what if we f*** it up now" thought that gets into the back of the head and once there can't be gotten out. Remember that no Sligo team ever in the history of senior intercounty football has been the favourites in a senior championship decider.  Think about that for a second - that's a lot of waiting history to be afraid to screw up on, and it only needs that fear be in a few spots in a team to create the critical weaknesses. Whereas Sligo today had to deal with the fear of losing Roscommon had no concern other than to go for it and so they did.   

In terms of what happened next, Sligo got hosed in the middle of the park.  Early in the championship, the two midfielders had the better of things but we had problems with breaks. I would say that as the championship progressed the midfielders were finding it tougher but we improved on the breaks. Today both midfielders were poor and we couldn't bribe a break.

Behind that we did what we didn't do in any game of recent times - gave away a lot of frees. Add these two together - the failure to win primary or secondary possesion in the middle third and giving away eight odd scorable frees (even if they weren't all converted) and, well you had to be in trouble.

All that said when Sligo got level at 12 - 12 the force was with them and they could have been expected to kick on. They both missed chances and turned over ball. Having hauled themselves back into it, they lacked the necessary composure and 'snatched' at everything instead of keeping the ball, working the openings or drawing the frees. Credit Roscommon with forcing themselves back on Sligo to prevent them pushing on but Sligo had the opportunity and didn't take it.

While it was a good loud hard fought championship match, I think some of the reactions on here to both the match and the "emergence of a new force" are well over cooked. It was indeed close and exciting and a real contest throughout but it was no classic.  There were some fine individual scores and a small number of outstanding performances, but there were long periods of aimless play, a lot of mistakes, a lot of bunching and going round in circles and no real shape to a lot of what either side did. Both teams will look at quite a number of individuals and wonder what were they doing?

This morning we did not know how good Sligo could be and all we found out is that they cannot consistently play to the level that we have seen since April and that a number of the weaknesses that we might have feared still do require attention  or in some cases time to mature. The fact that Roscommon beat them doesn't make them a super team and a cold analysis will conclude that victory was down to some exceptional individual performances, some that might have been anticipated and hoped for, others not.

Make no mistake though, they were fully deserving of the win today and even though Sligo 'could have' pushed on and won, it would have been illl deserved. I don't think though that their victory is a sign of greater strenght in depth in Connacht and I would fear greatly for both sides in their next encounters, for very different reasons - hopefully I'm wrong on that so we'll leave the in depth analyses until the season is over.

I totally agree with that assesment Paddy. This is exactly what i said to a few fellow supporters before the game. I think this fear of failure made them hesitant in possesion and hesistant in the tackle. At one stage in the first half Charlie was well out in front of Heneghan. He hesiatated for some unknown reason and Heneghan won the ball, 15 seconds later it was over the bar from Casey if I remember correctly.
It was the same with the pass. Slow to let it off. Thinking too much about it, whereas against mayo and galway it was let off quickly - more off the cuff.

Hats off to Roscommon, very worthy Champions. Cathal Cregg was my man of the match. He was like Paul Galvin in disguise. Serious breaking ball won. Drove at the sligo defence who had no answer. Cawley, Davey and Harrison tried to shackle him all to no avail. McDermott done very well on kelly (plenty of sneaky jersey pulling in the first half). It appeared that White ticked him twice for this??
McGuire stood off Shine in the first half and he kicked a majestic poit. He got tight to him in the second and he wriggled clear and kicked one off his left. Really if Shine took all his easier scoring chances Roscommon could have won by 3-4 points.

The best team won on the day. Fitting really so close to the passing of Dermot Earley. Congrats Ross.

PS - It was a joy to behold to see so many Sligo fans at the game yesterday. I hope as many continue to give our lads the support they deserve. Maybe with expectations lowered for the Down game and the fear of losing gone we can get back to the performance levels of earlier games.
Sligeach Abu.

Sligo Team not from an official source is Greene, Harrison, McGuire, Donovan, J Davey, Phillips, Cawley, Gilmartin, Taylor, Costello, Breheny, O Hara, McGee, Marren, Kelly.

I can see on all the boards and the Roscommon folk trying to convince themselves into winning frame of mind, but its one thing thinking your going to win and another knowing your going to win.

What an absolute clown you are Sligonian. Win a couple of matches, and the arrogance flows like shit out of you. I've seen this with Sligo people before. Give me knowledgeable Gaa people from Mayo and Galway any day.

Ive seen this behaviour from supporters of all teams in connacht at one time or another. I someone deduce that the bold Sligonian made the statement with tongue firmly in cheek in the hope that someone would fall for the bait - take a bow shrewdness.
I noted from my time in Sligo IT that Mayo people in particular had a penchant for this type of behaviour.
It is a rare phenomenon indeed that would see GAA knowledge confined exclusively to the borders of Mayo and Galway. Maybe Jim Corr might look into that one. Scutter talk if ever I heard it.

Best of luck to Kevin and the lads tomorrow. Hopefully we will be Connacht Champs come 6pm. All i know is that regardless of the result these lads have been a breath of fresh air this year and have played some delightfull football which has been a joy to watch for this supporter. What is rare is beautiful. Up the Magpies!

Derry v Kildare (Kildare+1.5) Kildare
Armagh v Dubs ( Armagh +0.5) Armagh
Offaly v Down (Offaly +3.5) Offaly Bonus
Monaghan v Tyrone (Monaghan +0.5) Monaghan
Wexford v Cork (Wexford +6.5) Wexford Bonus
Roscommon v Sligo (Roscommon +3.5) Sligo

I maybe wrong but i cant roscommon going 1on1 with kelly,

Curious Sligonian if you knew David Kelly was a Roscommon man, born and bred, until his family moved to Tubercurry. Great player. As your former PRO wrote in the Herald, Roscommon's loss is Sligo's gain. That said, I can't see Ros putting 2 players on Kelly. Looking forward to the battle between Kelly and hopefully Ormsby on Sunday.

I think if memory serves me right his dad is from belmullet and the family moved from crossmolina to tubber when he was a young lad. Mayo's loss and all that....

Peter solan the great - the great gimp more like.

Galway v Wexford (Wexford +3.5) Wexford
Cork v Cavan (Cavan +8.5) Cork
Offaly v Waterford (Waterford +1.5) Waterford
Westmeath v Derry (Westmeath +2.5) Derry Bonus
Dublin v Tipperary (Tipperary +6.5) Tipperary
Down v Longford (Longford +3.5) Down
Kildare v Leitrim (Leitrim +7.5) Leitrim
Meath v Louth (Louth +4.5) Meath Bonus
Fermanagh v Armagh (Fermanagh +3.5) Armagh

Brilliant! absolutely brilliant! How long have Sligo waited to come out on the right side of a tight finish? What a feeling. No more moral victories and feeling sorry for ourselves when we lose in a tight contest.
Well done one and all. a proud evening. Looking forward to the analysis.

Sligo v Galway (sligo +0.5) sligo Bonus
Antrim v Kildare (Antrim +0.5) Kildare
Kerry v Limerick ( Limerick +5.5) Limerick BONUS

I really think Coen or marren needs to come into the full forward line the next day. You can be certain that kelly will be in for some double teaming whenever we are on the attack. Coen or marren could be potential match winners if too much emphasis is placed on marking Kelly. Will management persist with a big man at 14 coming out the field leaving space for kelly and mcgee inside or will they go to orthodox 3 man ff line?