The long trek to Drogheda was in vain as Sligo went in search for their first points in the league. After 15 minutes the team were level 0-3 each but the game was decided in the next 10 minutes. 

A long ball by Carrabine into Pat Hughes was brillantly caught on the 5m line and he shot on the turn, the keeper was beaten but the post came to Louths rescue. Nathan Mullen lobbed over the rebound from 30m out. Liam Gaughan struck the crossbar, again the Louth keeper did not know where the ball had gone and it fell on top of the net. Niall Murphy scored a long range free to leave Sligo leading 0-6 v 0-3 but with a bit of luck it could have been 1-5 or even 2-4. 

Louth lost wing forward to an injury and Eoghan Duffy entered the fray in the 20th minute. Within 30 seconds he had driven a pile driver to the roof of the net after a good passing move he came on the end of. A mishit free ended with Byrne winning a ball (was he just inside the square) and he was brought down by Eoin McHugh, Mulroy made no mistake this time from the placed ball and drove to the bottom corner. An misdirected pass in defence lead to Duffy coming in late and driving to the net. At half time we trailed 3-8 v 0-8. At this point Peter Laffey came in for the injured Eoin McHugh.

5 minutes into the second half all dreams of a comeback were extinguished with 2 goals to Louth for Byrne and McEneaney who flicked a sideline ball to the top corner of the net. Sligo changed to a man to man setup at this time with Paul McNamara and Barry Gorman coming in for Neil Ewing and Darragh Cummins. Points from play from Adrian Marren, Seán Carrabine and Gorman showed the lads kept going till the final whistle. We are now in the position where we need to probably win our remaining fixtures to avoid relegation.

Next Sunday we host Westmeath in Connolly park

SCORERS - Louth: S Mulroy 1-5 (3f, Pen), E Duffy 2-1, D Byrne, J McEneaney 1-2 each, C Downey, R Nally 0-2 each, A McDonnell, T Durnin 0-1 each. Sligo: L Gaughan 0-6 (3f), N Murphy (1f), A Marren 0-3 each, B Gorman 0-2, S Carrabine, N Mullen 0-1 each.

Louth - F Sheekey 8; F Donohoe 8, E Carolan 8, J Craven 9; A Williams 8, B Duffy 8, J Clutterbuck 8; T Durnin 8, J Califf 8; C Branigan 6, C Downey 7, C McKeever 6; A McDonnell 8, S Mulroy 8, D Byrne 8. Subs: E Duffy 8 for McKeever (22), J McEneaney 8 for Brannigan (29), R Nally 7 for Byrne (43), H Osbourne 6 for McDonnell (59).

Sligo - A Devaney 5; J Carr 5, E McHugh 5, M Gordon 5; N Mullen 5, A McIntyre 5, D Cummins 5; P Kilcoyne 5, G O'Kelly Lynch 5; N Ewing 5, S Carrabine 5, C McKenna 5; N Murphy 6, P Hughes 6, L Gaughan 7. Subs: P Laffey for McHugh (31), L Towey for K McKenna (HT), P McNamara for Cummins (39), B Gorman for Ewing (40), A Marren for Hughes (46)