Galway and Sligo to meet in Connacht U20 Football Final

Galway will play Sligo next Wednesday (7pm) in Tuam Stadium in the Connacht U20 Football Final, after defending champions Sligo defeated Mayo 0-17 to 1-9 last night in the Connacht GAA Centre. Poor weather saw the game moved from MacHale Park in Castlebar to the Bekan venue and it was a dynamic Sligo side that managed to cope with the tough conditions better. Playing into the strong diagonal wind, defending champions Sligo led 0-9 to 1-4 at the break and stretched that advantage to 0-17 to 1-5 with 15 minutes to go. Despite not scoring in the last quarter, the Sligo lads had more than enough done to see off the late efforts of Maurice Sheridan’s Mayo team to close the gap. After the game, winning manager Paul Henry spoke to Rob Murphy…

Scores for Sligo: Matt Henry 0-4, Luke Marren 0-4 (3fs), Ronan Niland 0-2, Daire Boyle 0-2, Rossa Sloyan 0-2, Dylan Walsh 0-2 (1 45), Dillon Walsh 0-1.

Scorers for Mayo: Fenton Kelly 1-3, Bob Tuohy 0-2, Dara Hurley 0-2, Tom O’Flaherty 0-1, Ryan Fadden 0-1.

Sligo: Ethan Carden; Ross Chambers, Conor Johnson, Luke Casserly; Dylan Walsh, Dylan McLoughlin, Ross Sloyan; Conor Sheridan, Canice Mulligan; Mark McDaniel, Ronan Niland, Ross Doherty; Luke Marren, Daire O’Boyle, Matt Henry.

Subs: Dillon Walsh for McDaniel, Joshua Flynn for Niland, Ciaran O’Reilly for Sloyan, Brian Byrne for Sheridan, James Kiernan for Doherty.

Mayo: David Dolan; Cian McHale, Sam Callinan, Ciaran Boland; Paul Gilmore, Sean Morahan, Conal Dawson; Bob Tuohy, Fenton Kelly; Cathal Corless, Tom O’Flaherty, Jack Fallon; Cian McHale, James Maheady, Dara Hurley.

Subs: Ryan Fadden for Fallon, Brendan Gilmartin for McHale, Finbarr McLoughlin for McHale, Dara Joyce for Corless, Adam Beirne for Hurley.

Referee: Michael McGirl (Leitrim).