GALWAY 1-12

SLIGO 0-11

Galway got the better of Sligo on a score of 1-12 to 0-11 in a hard fought physical battle in the 1^st round of the FBD League which both teams will reflect on as hugely beneficial. Played in wintry conditions in the Connacht GAA Centre, it was the free takers for both sides which caught the eye in the first half, with Adrian Marren landing 3 fine points for Sligo and Peter Cooke kicking 4 beauties from a range of angles for the Tribesmen. Galway were good value for their 1-7 to 0-5 half time lead after Seán Kelly capitalised on a defensive lapse to goal stylishly for them. Sligo needed a barnstorming score on the stroke of half time from Darragh Cummins to leave 5 between the sides at the break. 3 points in a row from the unerringly accurate  Marren (he would finish with 8) saw the Yeats county narrow the gap to a goal after 15 minutes of the second half but Galway had lovely scores towards the end from the impressive Adrian Varley and subs Dessie Conneely and Robert Finnerty to see out the victory for them.

In the other game played tonight Roscommon had a comfortable 2-14 to 1-3 victory over Leitrim. Finbar Cregg and Diarmuid Murtagh raised green flags in the first half for the Rossies and Brendan Gallagher netted a late penalty for Leitrim. The teams and scorers from that game were:

LEITRIM: 1 D McKiernan 2 L Ryan 3 D Fehily 4 M McWeeney 5 J Rooney 6 E Ward 7 S Quinn 8 D Wrynn 9 C Moreton 10 C Gaffney 11 B Gallagher (1-1, 1-0 pen) 12 J Heslin 13 A Flynn 14 N Mcgovern 15 D Carberry (0-1)

Subs used: K Keegan, K Beirne (0-1f) J Mitchell, C Reynolds, M Murphy, C Gallagher

ROSCOMMON: 1 C Lavin 2 P Domican 3 N McInerney 4 R Timothy 5 T McKenna 6 D Murray 7 C Devaney 8 T O’Rourke 9 I Kilbride 10 N Daly 11 R Daly 12 P Kelly 13 C Murtagh (0-1) 14 D Murtagh (1-6, 0-4fs) 15 F Cregg (1-2)

Subs used: D Smith (0-4, 0-3fs), S Mullooly, E Smith, S Dowd, H Walsh, C Lennon (0-1), P Neilon

SLIGO: 1 Aidan Devaney 2 Eoin McHugh 3 Eddie McGuinness 4 Mikey Gordon 5 Keelan Cawley 6 Darragh Cummins (0-1) 7 Gerard O’Kelly-Lynch 8 Pat O’Connor 9 Paul Kilcoyne 10 Neil Ewing 11 Finnian Cawley (0-1) 12 Jodie O’Reilly 13 Adrian Marren (0-8, 7fs) 14 Pat Hughes 15 Seán Carrabine (0-1)

Subs used: Brady, Clarke, Henry, Mullen and McNamara.

GALWAY: 1 Ronan Ó Beoláin 2 Garreth Bradshaw 3 Seán Andy Ó Ceallaigh 4 Evan Wynne 5 Cathal Sweeney  6 Johnny Duane 7 David Wynne 8 Thomas Flynn 9 Kieran Duggan 10 John Maher 11 Peter Cooke (0-4) 12 Sean Kelly (1-0) 13 Frankie Burke (0-2) 14 Patrick Sweeney 15 Adrian Varley (0-4)

Subs used: Conroy, Brannigan, Finnerty (0-1f), Conneely (0-1)