ATU Sligo senior men’s gaelic footballers suffered a 1-11 to 0-6 loss to St Mary’s Belfast in Thursday night’s second round match at Ballinode in Sligo.
The visitors, known as ‘The Ranch’, were full value for their win with Matt Óg McGleenan, son of former Tyrone star Mattie McGlennan, and midfielder Michael McCarville (who was a Freshers student at ATU Sligo), impressing for the winners.
The home side actually began the game well and led by Joe Keaney’s early point to no-score.
But once St Mary’s got in front after 20 minutes, they began to take control.
McGleenan slotted over an exquisite point from the left-hand side – and straight away capitalised on Sligo uncertainty from the restart to set up Cormac Murphy for the simplest of goals.
St Mary’s led 1-4 to 0-2 at half-time but it was their start to the second half which did the real damage as they quickly established a 1-8 to 0-3 lead – and ATU Sligo were simply unable to bridge that gap.
However, all is not yet lost for Benji Drummond’s side as, under the new Sigerson Cup format, they will face a back-door game next week.
The opposition has still to be confirmed.
Listen back to commentary highlights of the second-half as described by Ocean FM Sport’s Austin O’Callaghan and Sligo footballer Sean Carrabine – along with postmatch reaction from ATU Sligo manager Benji Drummond and St Mary’s midfielder Michael McCarville.
Thursday’s Sigerson Cup results
ATU Sligo 0-6 St Mary’s 1-11
UCD 1-6 NUI Galway (holders) 2-11
Maynooth 2-11 MTU Cork 3-14
