Sligo progressed to thequarter finals of theHeineken ConnachtJunior cup when theydefeated pre-tournamentfavourites and current titleholders Monivea in asuperbly contestedencounter at Hamilton park,Strandhill on Sunday.

The home team produced aperformance full ofcharacter and determinationto impose themselves andultimately dominate thevisiting Galway men.

A large crowd of supportersfrom both camps witnessed ahugely physical, but alwayssporting , battle between theteams currently occupying thetop two positions in theConnacht Junior league.

Playing into the stiff breeze,Sligo kicked off andimmediately tried to gain afoothold in Monivea territory,but some good kicking byMonivea put the home teamunder pressure and a penaltywas conceded inside the Sligohalf after 6 minutes. A quick tapfrom Monivea scrum halfDarren Blade earned his side anextra ten metres before out-halfGer O Connor elected to go forthe posts and put his team intoan early lead. Sligo’s PaddyPearson restarted and a cleverkick forced a knock-on from theMonivea catcher. From theresulting scrum number 8 PeterMullan picked and quicklymoved infield before setting upthe ruck. Scrum half Billy Leahyquickly moved the ball toPearson who made a half breakbefore being hauled down on the22. Monivea infringed at thebreakdown, the referee awardedSligo the penalty, and Pearsonmade no mistake in securing thethree points.

Sligo again responded andsome fine driving play by JasonEast and Adrian Mc Hale putthem in a good position insidethe visitors 22, however, overexuberanceat the breakdowncaused the concession of aPenalty and Monivea were ableto clear.

Sligo again fell foul of thereferees whistle after 24 minuteswhen another penalty wasconceded at the ruck 4 metresinside the Sligo half . O Connorelected to go for posts and wasrewarded when his huge effortcrossed the bar to put his sideback into the lead.

Monivea were now up to fullspeed and were starting to getthe upper hand in the forwardexchanges. Things looked veryominous for the home team onthe half hour when during asustained Monivea attackPearson was penalised forjoining a ruck from the side onthe Sligo 22. To the horror of thehome crowd the refereeproduced a yellow card and theouthalf was banished to the sinbin for a 10 minute break. OConnor converted the penalty toput his side 6 points ahead.Gavin Foley kicked the restartwhich was superbly fielded byJoe Sweeney.

The Sligo forwardspiled in and drove towards theMona 22. James Wilson carriedbefore being halted 30 metresout. Leahy moved the ballquickly away before centreJordan Farrington made a halfbreak. The visitors illegallyprevented the attack andFarrington having taken overthe kicking duty coolly chippedthe penalty kick through theuprights. Sligo’s confidencecontinued to grow and withWilson and Mullen combiningwell with hooker Ross Mannionat the line out and flanker CathalCulhane starting to control thebreakdown the tide was startingto turn in their favour. Pearsonreturned from the sin bin justbefore half time and was quicklycalled back into action when histeam earned another penalty tothe right of the posts inside theGalway sides 10 metre line. Awell executed kick set the halftime score at 9 points all.

The second half begun muchas the first half ended with thehome team gaining the upperhand in most areas and cleverlyusing the wind to keep thevisitors pinned back in theirown half. Monivea gamely triedto run the ball out of defence buttime after time huge Sligotackles put paid to their efforts.The home side now had theirtails up and continued to huntfor a try which would put thegame beyond doubt. A sweepingright to left move sawFarrington put into space. Thecentre sped towards the linebefore cutting back inside,winger Gary Collins hadpositioned himself perfectly toreceive the try scoring pass butFarrington was caught and theopportunity was lost.

With seven minutes left on theclock more fine work saw Sligoawarded a penalty on theMonivea 22. Pearson lined up thekick but to the dismay of thehome support the kick driftednarrowly wide. The holderswere not going to let their titlego without a fight and threweverything at Sligo in the closingstages. Their pressure wasrewarded with a penalty insidethe Sligo half with time up onthe clock. O Connor lined up thekick to try to bring the gameinto extra time but his effort fellshort and wide allowing reliablefull back David Gerrity to collectand touch down. The long blastfollowed much to the delight ofthe jubilant home supporters.

Sligo’s reward for this victoryis a home quarter final againstBuccaneers next sunday andthey will be hoping to retaintheir fine form for thatencounter.

U14S TOP THE LEAGUE

Sligo under 14s topped theleague on Sunday with a winagainst Creggs of Roscommon.The game was a much labouredaffair in the opening minuteswith the Xmas rest taking its tollon the skills of the game, Sligobroke the deadlock whenDarragh Byrne ran a try in froma good individual run off thewing. Evan Mc Garth stepped upto kick the conversion from adifficult angle but the trusty bootfailed to bring it between theposts. From the kick off Rory

Mullan collected the ball andwith some better movement theball was taken into Creggs 22 bySteven Kearins where he drewthe defence in to create a smallgap for Evan McGrath to touchdown for a fine try. Again theangle was too tight for Mc Garthto convert but Sligo’s confidencewas lifting. With the ball back inthe Sligo half a knock on gave ascrum to Creggs and with a frontrow of Matthew CosgroveDiarmiud Hough and Conan ODonnell the opposition waspushed back but a smart movesaw the ball come out on theblind side and the oppositionwere heading for the line but agood tackle from Jack keegansaw the play break down andSligo had the opportunity to winthe ball back from a line out.

Thesecond half began slowly withplenty of handling errors onboth sides. Evan Mc Grath gotan opportunity to convert apenalty in front of the postsfrom a handling infringement atthe ruck, and up he stepped toput it away to bring the score to13 nil to the Sligo lads. From thekick off Conor Mc Goldrickcollected the ball and with theopposition arriving in his line hewas forced to kick for space butfailed to find touch bringingCreggs back to a scrum on theSligo 5 metre line .A wellexecuted move from Cregs drewthe play to blind side of thescrum but some hard work fromDarren Harte and Evan McGrath could not keep theopposition from crossing the lineputting the score at 13 -5 to Sligo.Daniel ford and James Hamsontook to the field replacing JackKeegan at wing and Connor McGoldrick at full back and Sligoshopes of increasing their tallyrose when a great pass fromSteven Kearins almost put EvanMc Grath in but the Boyle manwas bundled into touch justshort of the line.

Sligo again attacked and wereawarded a penalty in the Creggs22.Not opting for the posts aquick Sligo tap and go yielded agreat try from Darragh Byrne.Mc Grath converted and thescored board stood at 18-5 to thevisitors.

The final wave of subssaw Luke Morrison ConnorHerighty Jason Greer andAnthony Mc Guinn took to thefield and from the drop kick theywere straight into the action.The two fresh legs of Herightyand Morrison pulled of a greatmove and were unfortunate notto yield a try as Herighty wastaken into touch.Creggs tookposition from the line out andfrom a very strong kick theypushed Sligo back into to theirown half .

James Hamson struckback from the pickup but Creggsbattled to win the ball back butgreat defence work from JasonGreer and Ryan Bright keptpossession while support playwas set up Ronan Redmond.

Matthew Cosgrove having thebest game of the season hit thefor the line and was unlucky notto score but was awarded apenalty for his efforts .Sligoopted to tap a go and the oldreliable Darragh Byrne foundthe line. With confidence highEvan Mc Grath converted hiskick finishing the game 29—5 toSligo.