Sligo had to make a late change with David Quinn replaced by Conor Griffin. Nathan Rooney got his first start in the corner. Captain Keelan Cawley got the games first score in the opening minute. This was quickly followed with a Rooney point. Bevan Duffy pulled one back for the home team who drove a number of long range efforts wide of the posts. There was a fair bit of dragging and blocking off the ball as the teams sorted out their different systems but things improved for Sligo when Gordon found himself on his own but still out on the sideline he had a lot to do but made little of challenge as he finished with accuracy.

Louth responded with another Duffy point but Séan Carrabine took the ball from Griffin who had made a big catch from the kickout and drove forward to fist the ball over. This was followed by a lovely left footed side footed effort by Gordon. Carrabine finished a Paddy O’Connor long range effort with a fist over the bar but this was cancelled out by a Ciaran Downey effort that could have been an effort for a goal.

Louth finished the half stronger but both teams were down men. Firstly Eddie McGuinness who mishandled a short kickout took the option of taking down the man, the correct decision but it meant he was in the bin for 10 mins. Sam Mulroy pointed the free. From that kickout Carrabine was put through around 45m out but the Louth centre back stuck out his leg to trip him up injuring himself in the process. Louth were down to 13 four minutes later when midfielder Bevan Duffy was sent to the bin which Eamonn Kilgannon drove over from distance. Niall Murphy got a good score from play, which was followed by a quick brace from Ciaran Byrne but Sligo had the last score of the half with a Carrabine free. The halftime score was 1-9 v 0-9.

However seconds into the second half the task to drive on for the win was made a lot harder when Sam Mulroy netted direct from the throw in. Sligo did respond well to this setback going back up the field to go back in front from a Murphy free. Within two minutes of this score Louth had put up two white flags by Duffy and Conor Grimes from play. In the 8^th minute the real nail in the coffin or turning point was the referee penalising Sligo for the kickout being short, it did not look it at the ground but have not seen it back yet. From the throw in Grimes took the ball and one quick handpass had Mulroy through one on one with Kilgannon and he finished it well. They had extended the lead out further with three more points from play when Ciaran Keenan drove a rocket across the goal into the net for the best goal of the game. Louth went into the water break having turned a 3 point deficit at halftime into a 10 point lead in the quarter.

Niall Murphy scored a good long range point but from the kickout he was sin binned despite his protestations . Keenan scored the next two for Louth from play with Peter Naughton responding with a pointed free from a difficult angle. Eddie McGuinness received his marching orders with a yellow following his earlier black but the game was finished as a contest well before this. Barry Gorman scored a good score after spinning the full back but the game was gone. Louth were into the league semi finals.

Scorers: 

Sligo :- Niall Murphy 0-4 (3f) Mikey Gordon 1-1, Seán Carrabine 0-4 (2f), Nathan Rooney, Barry Gorman, Peter Naughton (1f), Eamonn Kilgannon (1f), Keelan Cawley 0-1 each

Louth :- Sam Muroy 2-3 (2f), Ciaran Keenan 1-1, Bevan Duffy, Ciaran Byrne, Declan Byrne (3f) 0-3 each, Ciaran Downey, Liam Jackson, Conor Grimes, Eoghan Callaghan 0-1 each

Sligo : Eamonn Kilgannon, Ryan Feehily, Eddie McGuinness, Evan Lyons, Keelan Cawley, Paul McNamara, Darragh Cummins, Paddy O’Connor, Paul Kilcoyne, Conor Griffin, Cian Lally, Mikey Gordon, Seán Carrabine, Niall Murphy, Nathan Rooney.

Subs – Red Óg Murphy for Rooney, Cian Breheny for O’Connor, Barry Gorman for Lally, Sean Power for Gordon, Peter Naughton for Griffin, Nathan Mullen for Feehily, Peter Laffey for Cummins