The hopes that a first U20 Connacht
championship would in turn lead to a first All-Ireland final ended after a
brave battle against a disciplined well organised Kildare side in Cavan in Saturday
evening.
In the end the margin was five points 0-12
to 0-7 with the low scores telling part of the tale but Sligo will look back on
a scoreless opening quarter after which their opponents had a 0-4 to 0-0 lead –
as the period in which the game was lost.
Castleconnor’s Oisin Flynn, making his first
start after appearing as a sub in the Connacht final opened the Sligo scoring
and when Lee Deignan quickly added a second to halve the Kildare lead, there
was a sense that Sligo were up and running.
There was a further exchange of points with
St Molaise’s Joseph Keaney one of Sligo’s
better players, adding one for Sligo before Kildare surged again to add three points
and stretch the lead out to five - 0-8 to 0-3 at half time.
Sligo did have the first score of the
second half after 6 minutes from Gavin Duffy but Kildare quickly responded to
maintain the five point margin.
They had their best spell in the game
over the next 15 minutes getting plenty of possession but unable to penetrate the massed
Kildare defence. Keaney got his second of the day and then Canice Mulligan and
Eoghan Smith added to Sligo’s tally to bring the margin back to two – 0-9 to
0-7 with ten minutes to go.
It was to be as good as it got for Sligo. Try as they might, they couldn’t find a way
through and as they committed to attack, Kildare managed to pick of three
points on the break to restore the five-point cushion and close the door on
Sligo’s ambition.
KILDARE: C Barker; M Maguire, D
O’Donoghue (0-1), H O’Neill; T Gill(0-2,1f), J McGrath, N O’Regan (0-2); B
Gibbons, L Killian; R Burke, D Lynam (0-1), S Farrell; E Bagnall, A Fanning (0-1),
A Browne (0-5).
Subs: D Swords for Lynam (41), J Dalton
for Bagnall (46), J McKevitt for Fanning (56), T Von Engelbrechten for O’Regan
(60+1), T Martin for Farrell (60+3).
SLIGO: C Kilcoyne; C Johnston, S
Molloy, M McGowan; C Mulligan (0-1), J Lavin, D Walsh; J Keaney (0-2), F
O’Donnell; J Donlon, L Duignan (0-1, 1f), O Flynn (0-1); G Duffy (0-1), Eoghan
Smith (0-1), Jack Davitt.
Subs: L Casserly for Flynn (half-time),
L Marren for Duffy (36), M Henry for Walsh (46), O Gorman for Smith (55), C
O’Reilly for O’Donnell (55).
Referee: M McNally (Monaghan)