Sligo's brave revival falls short

Cavan 0-14 Sligo 1-8:CAVAN PRODUCED a Jekyll and Hyde-style performance, but still chiselled out their first points of the season: .

Against a Sligo side who finished with 14 men, the hosts were a joy to watch in the opening half and weren’t flattered by their 0-10 to 0-3 interval lead.

But the westerners dragged themselves back into the game when a purple patch in the second half yielded three points by Adrian Marren and a Colm McGee goal.

Despite having Brendan Egan sent off with 15 minutes left, Sligo almost snatched a late draw but David Kelly was denied by Damien Reilly’s block in injury time.

CAVAN: J Reilly; D Barkey, D Reilly, R Flanagan; B Watters, P O’Reilly, R Maloney-Derham (0-1); D Givney (0-1), G McKiernan (0-3); N Smith (0-1), M McKeever, K Meehan (0-2, 1f); N McDermott, E Keating, M Dunne (0-4, 2). Subs: B Fitzpatrick (0-2) for E Keating (3 mins); N Murray for K Meehan (60 mins); D McKiernan for B Watters, D O’Dowd for N McDermott (both 65 mins); S Jordan for N Smith (69 mins).

SLIGO: P Greene; C Harrison, B Kennedy, R Donovan; J Davey, S McManus, P McGovern; E Mullen, B Egan; M Breheny (0-1), A Costello, P Hughes; C McGee (1-2, 0-1 45), J Clarke, A Marren (0-5, 2f). Subs: T Taylor for E Mullen (12 mins); J Martyn for B Kennedy (27 mins); D Rooney for P McGovern (34 mins) M Quinn for J Davey (43 mins); D Kelly for M Breheny (47 mins).

Referee: P Fox (Westmeath).