Galway 0-22; Sligo 0-4. So, once again, we Sligo supporters had to eat the dust of defeat, to paraphrase James Connolly. Defeat is not exactly a novel experience for us, but it's not any easier for that.
The county colours are black and white. The strip used to be an all black jersey with a white collar and cuffs. Somehow, that captures the county's current mood better than the mainly white top that is worn at the moment.
I do not remember the team of the mid-1960s very well, but I am told it was a good one. Unfortunately, it came up against a Galway team that won three all-Ireland finals in a row. Bad luck? You might call it that.
Sligo won one Connacht title during my time. That was in 1975. The win was as unexpected as it was welcome. But Mickey Kearns was past his best by then. Ah, there was a man whose play was pure poetry.
Mickey Moran
Since then we've been mainly in the doldrums - up until fairly recently, that is. Four years ago, a Derry man called Mickey Moran arrived on the scene. By dint of hard work, a gradual improvement came about. Some good results in the National League, a few draws in the Connacht championship. Hope, that allegedly springs eternal, began to slowly rekindle.
A good run in the League two years ago gave a chance of promotion to Division 1. But on the final Sunday, defeat by lowly Cavan meant that chance was not taken. How similar the story has been over the past two years.
Fortunately, that failure didn't destroy team morale. Some good League displays the following season led to well-earned promotion and a quarter-final against Armagh. What a wet, miserable day that match was played on. It seemed the elements themselves conspired against us. And we lost by only one point. But, in truth, Armagh - now holders of back-to-back Ulster championships, after all - deserved to win.
Nothing daunted, the boys in black and white were back with a very good run among the elite of Division 1 during this past League season. A semi-final place was in prospect. Only Clare, which had not done so well, to be beaten. A Sligo goal in the first few minutes. The script seemed to be written correctly for a change.
But it wasn't to be. We hardly scored again for the rest of the game. It was as if every Sligo player on the field was overcome with a lack of self-belief. Meath slipped in to grab that elusive semi-final berth and Sligo people were left to ponder why once again.
Greater task
However, and to their credit, the players again hauled themselves up from the disappointed depths. A greater task than that League encounter faced them: Mayo in the championship. How many years since a championship win? Four draws in the past five years and defeat in each of the replays: that had been the Sligo story. The omens were not good.
And then it happened. The seemingly impossible psychological barrier was broken. A win over Mayo in Markievicz Memorial Park on June 17th, 2000. A new millennium had dawned for Sligo football.
The semi-final against Galway was eagerly anticipated. Was this the year of the long-awaited Connacht title? Would success starved supporters feast full at last? Surely nobody would grudge us.
Now, looking back to the Sunday before last, it seems that the poet most associated with our county had us in mind when he wrote: "We had fed the heart on fantasies."
Melancholy scene
Truly, the scene in Markievicz Park was a melancholy one (unless you were a Galway supporter, of course). Majestic Ben Bulben refused to emerge from its covering of mist. It did not want to witness the humiliation on the field. It was a despondent Sligo crowd that slunk out of the ground. What the atmosphere was like in the team's dressing room is unimaginable.
Can they drag themselves up out of the depths once again? Of course they can. They must. They are a young team. The black-and-white will flutter proudly once again. There is always another day.
To return to Yeats: he wrote that when the heart is fed on fantasies, it "grows bitter from the fare". We must guard against that reaction. There must be no recriminations. The Sligo team has come a long way under Mickey Moran. The latest defeat shows that they still have a way to go. I hope he will remain at the helm.