Sligo’s footballers’ hopes of an early boost to their ambition to get promoted from Division Four took an early setback on Sunday when they suffered an disappointing first round loss to Laois on Sunday last.

The Leinster side, relegated from Division Three last year were never really under pressure for the win and the Yeats County will be as disappointed with the performance as with the outcome.

Despite long periods of possession, the home lacked penetration from the start. Their opponents by contrast established an early dominance in the middle of the field and were accurate in their passing to take full advantage of the opportunities that came their way over the hour.

Sligo actually controlled the first five minutes of the game but failed to register a score kicking into the dressing room end with a tricky cross field wind. Instead if fell to Laois corner forward Eoin Lowry to open the scoring after six minutes.

Sligo’s newly appointed captain Niall Murphy brought his side level almost immediately but two quick points from Laois’s two leading men up front Evan O’Carroll and Paul Kingston established a lead that they would never relinquish,

Despite persistent probing around the Laois 45m line, Sligo were not creating the chances and Laois with 14 men between the ball and their goal were happy to await the opportunity to pounce. Their next score came from wing forward Mark Barry from play and the Dempsey’s club man thought he had another that was ruled out by the officials despite looking good to most in the ground.

Paddy O’Connor pulled one back for Sligo from distance but from the kick out Laois got the decisive score that put a five point margin (1-4 to 0-2) between the teams as Lowry goaled after Barry got inside the Sligo defence and played him for a decisive finish to the the left of debutante keeper Daniel Lyons.

Sligo fought to get back in the game with a superb long range point from David Quinn and a Sean Carrabine free but Laois kept the margin at five with two Paul Kingston scores – one from a free.

Cian Lally, one of Sligo’s better performers on the day put over Sligo’s fifth but again Laois had two to answer with Niall Corbet converting a mark and a further Kingston free putting them six clear as half time approached. Sligo had the last word as O’Connor finished good wore by Carrabine – anther of Sligo’s best in the day – to go into the break five behind 1-8 to 0-6.

By the time the teams emerged for the second half, the conditions had changed dramatically with a persistent thick rain making for difficult conditions underfoot and for handling.

Sligo again started with possession, but scores were hard to come from on all sides. It fell to a raiding Darragh Cummins to notch the first score of the second half after six minutes.That was followed by frees from Carrabine and Murphy  to bring the margin back to two mid-way through the half with a great Lyons save from O’Carroll preventing the Laois side from opening their account.

O’Carroll eventually got Laois off the mark with a fine long range free after 18 minutes.  Carrabine got one back for Sligo but Kingston pushed the margin out to three again with ten minutes to go.

Laois then sealed the outcome when substitute Lee Walker latched on to  an O’Carroll pass to find the net with his first touch.

Kingston stretched the lead to six and the game went into added time with Carrabine pulling it back to six with the last kick of the game.

Sligo; Daniel Lyons; Nathan Mullen, Eddie McGuinness, Evan Lyons; Luke Towey, Darragh Cummins (0-1), Luke Nicholson; Seán Carrabine (0-4 3f), Paul Kilcoyne; Conor Griffin, Cian Lally (0-1), David Quinn (0-1); Pat Spillane, Patrick O'Connor (0-2), Niall Murphy (C) (0-2 1f)

Subs; Donal Conlon for Griffin (h/t), Paul McNamara for Mullen (h/t), Mark Walsh for Lyons (51), Gerard O'Kelly-Lynch for Spillane (60), Alan Reilly for Nicholson (64),

Laois; Scott Osborne; Sean Greene, Trevor Collins, Robert Piggot; Sean O'Flynn, Mark Timmons, Brian Byrne; Kieran Lillis James Finn; Mark Barry (0-1), Paul Kingston (0-6 2f), Patrick O'Sullivan; Eoin Lowry (1-1), Evan O'Carroll (0-2 1m 1f), Niall Corbet (0-1 1m)

Substitutes used; Kevin Swayne for N Corbet (54), Lee Walker (1-0) for E Lowry (67), Brian Daly for E O'Carroll (68), Padraig Kirwan for M Barry (72), Cathal Doyle for P O'Sullivan (74),

REFEREE; Kieran Eannetta (Tyrone).