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Just saw the team and i think Brehony has got it spot on with regard to personnel. I would say there will be position changes though. Egan and McPartland in for Marren and Gallagher. I'm feeling a little more confident now. Roll on Sunday

There wouldn't be such a demand for tickets if ye had to travel to Portlaise

Ever the optimist Sligonian. I think we have a chance of winning but wouldn't be as optimistic as yourself. Firstly i hope the best team will be selected with Egan and Sweeney included. The vibes from the camp seem to be good-no major injuries. O'Hara is talking us up-see Western People newspaper. There is no doubt but we will put in a good performance-what may let us down is we are short of a few scoring forwards.

Rang home yesterday to book my tickets and was surprised to hear that deman for tickets was slow-this is in the football heartland of Tourlestrane so hopefully it will pick up during the week.

Odds on Paddy Power Galway v Sligo   2 - 9    9 - 1    4 - 1 

Any chance of Galway throwing this one 4-1 on Sligo could be a nice little earner

Is that definite? I heard originally Salthill. Have a mate thats going over for it and obviously he is keen to know.
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Yes it is in Hyde Park. We played Galway in Salthill in the first round of championship last year so its our turn to host the tribesmen.
Unfortunately Markievicz Park cannot accomodate a large enough crowd so we have to play it at a neutral venue. Home ground would mean a few points to any team so its a big disadvantage for us to play at a neutral venue.

What is the capacity of Markievicz Park? What is the required ground size to hold a provincial final?

There's a lot of misinformation on this thread.
Maxwell did end the game with only two points.

Don't agree with misinformation comment there. He may have scored only 2 points but he was fouled a number of times for frees (many of which were missed by Duignan) and was involved in many other scores where he won clean ball or flicked the ball on.

PJ got three points at the other end, but had a poor game.

Two of those points were frees and he did have a poor game. The starting full forward line for Galway were well held and only scored 3 from play which is lowest from that line for many a year.

If we limited Galway ffl to 3 from play-we would have a great chance i think. But these lads could catch fire again at any time.

GREENE DONOVAN MCGUIRE HARRISON MCGOVERN MARTYN J DAVEY O HARA QUINN CURRAN BREHONY D KELLY SWEENEY S DAVEY MC PARTLAND

Kelly will definately not be playing wing forward. He is not strong enough to win breaking ball and he will not be chasing back in defense the wing back. Let rules that out. He is a threat as a corner forward because he is fast, nippy and has a good turn and can win frees.

One relatively dodgy performance does not a weak full-back line make. As Ford himself said after the game our FB line has been out

Your right it was a one-off this year but Maxwell has done this before to Galway. Maybe more teams should play the route one against this Galway full back line. Mayo played low ball into Mortimer and the Roscommon fella (his name escapes me) Fitzgerald and especially Burke had great games. So maybe we need to vary it a little-put a big man on the edge of square along with Kelly and maybe Egan, Sweeney. Blake will not be letting us run through the middle like the Ross defenders did.

Galway still have a lot of class in the forwards if one or 2 are having off days there is always someone else there to pull the strings (Nicky Joyce on Sunday).

Hopefully it will be sorted for Connaught final in a months time against either Leitrim or Galway. Thinking a bit ahead of yourself there Mannix but realistically there should be only one winner from that one.

Good performance and a great result yesterday which sets us up nicely for a tilt at the Connaught final. Plenty of improvement will need to be found over the next few weeks especially in front of goal. We also need some scores from our full forward line. Hard to believe we scored 13 points and none of 3 starting full forwards scored. Marren i thought was a little unlucky to be hauled off so soon into the game but the full forward line was just too small and he paid the price for a woeful high pass to Kelly.
O'Hara as i heard in midweek was fit and raring to go-his injury (was in groin, knee or hamstring) was overstated in the media and he was flying into tackles from early on. Sligonian will be eating humble pie on Quinn shortly-he caught 3 in the middle, blocked and harried and scored a point. You can't ask much more from a midfielder. Half forwards and half backs were superb. Davey scored 2 points but kicked 6 wides. He also was indirectly responsible for the 1st Roscommon goal by not running onto the ball but had a good game. Overall still a big improvement for the next day but it can be done

Bringing Marren in has given us another scoring option. He has been inconsistent in the past but he is capable of scoring a few points given good quality ball. I'm assuming though that Gallagher will be roaming out the field leaving us with 2 small fellas in the full forward line with 3 defenders for company.

Philip Greene, Charles Harrison, Noel McGuire, Ross Donovan, Paul McGovern, Michael MacNamara,Johnny Davey,Sean Davey,Kieran Quinn,Brian Curran, Mark Breheny, Eamon O'Hara, David Kelly, Philip Gallagher, Adrian Marren.

Marren is in for McGowan and Davey and O'Hara have switched positions. Is O'Hara at wing forward due to his injury? If he is injured he should not be playing. He was played several times before while injured and it backfired every time.
Surely if he was to play he should be on O'Neill. Davey will not be able to compete or wind O'Neill up the way O'Hara can. Sligo boys whats your comments on the team?

ROSCOMMON (SF v Sligo) - G Claffey; S McDermott, A McDermott, P O'Connor; S Daly, D Casey, R Dooner; S O'Neill, M Finneran; J Tiernan, G Cox, C Cregg; D Connellan, K Mannion, G Heneghan.

Ross team has been named above. Looks a very solid lineout-may be a few question marks over the full back line. David Casey will be a big addition in centre half back. Derek Connellan is back in. I've seen him playing a few times including marking him in a challenge game against Kilmore a few years ago and he has never impressed me. What do the Ross guys think of the lineup?

Indeed the best contest on the day could be the Best Tan competition between the Commandant and Captain Tantastic(O'Hara)

Sean Davey has quite a good tan also which proved costly against Westmeath last year when the clowns Hughes and McGovern counldn't tell them apart. Hopefully they have been staying out of the sun

Sligo manager Tommy Breheny is sweating on the fitness of talisman Eamonn O'Hara ahead of Sunday's Connacht SFC semi-final against Roscommon at Hyde Park.

The former All-Star's groin injury hasn't been responding to treatment and he is rated as a major doubt for the local derby clash. Sligo will definitely be without defender Tony Taylor who is ruled out for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery to repair a dislocated kneecap. Taylor sustained the injury in a club game just a few weeks before Sligo's first round win over New York on May 13.

Roscommon boss John Maughan has a full complement of players to pick from. The Rossies are just back from a training week in Portugal.


Does anyone know if this story is true or is it some pre match mind games?

If he doesn't play i don't think we have much chance. If he plays and not fully fit like against Donegal and Galway a few years ago we have even less chance.

This yr playing Quinn, gallagher and mcgowan wil  be exposed now championship time is on

I would have to agree with Seanie on this one. Quinn had been slow to return to county standard after his few years out. But there were encouraging signs that he was starting to return to form in latter stages of league. There is a world of difference between club and county and i think Sligoian you should take account of this when criticising lads who have taken a few years out for whatever reason.

McGowan despite been a club mate-i would be amazed to see him start. Surely Marren or Sweeney will get in ahead of him