Leitrim and Sligo provided plenty of entertaining fare and a high standard of hurling in a keenly fought and exciting All-Ireland Junior Hurling Championship encounter at Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada, Carrick-on-Shannon, yesterday.
There was little to choose between the sides as they exchanged scores throughout with Leitrim pulling away in the final minutes through a superbly taken goal by Allan O'Shea.
Earlier Sligo looked to have the edge as their top scorer and man of the match, Paul Seevers, punished Leitrim with a sequence of long-range pointed frees, but a better balanced Leitrim 15 stuck to their task and were deserving winners.
Sligo's goal came in the 18th minute when Anthony Cunnane picked up a loose ball behind the Leitrim defence and sent it past keeper Hilary Phelan. Five minutes later Peter Logan received a pass from Padraig Doran to shoot to an empty net after Sligo keeper Henry Cox had parried a Padraig Carroll shot.
The game was tied 1-5 apiece, but Sligo took an early second-half lead through two Seevers points. Leitrim restored parity through Tommy McLoughlin and Brian Carroll, and going into the final quarter both sides exchanged further scores until Tommy McLoughlin edged Leitrim ahead with a pointed free 10 minutes from time.
Then came O'Shea's goal five minutes before the final whistle to set up Leitrim for a rare championship hurling victory and a meeting with Louth in the next round.
Leitrim: H Phelan; K Glancy, J McGowan, B Beirne; B Keane, J Kelly, J Keane; B Murray, T McLoughlin (0-2); B Whelan (0-1), B Carroll (0-3), P Doran (0-1); P Carroll (0-1), A O'Shea (1-4), P Logan (1-0).
Sligo: H Cox; H Cawley, F Hayes, J Carty; M Gallagher, T O'Brien, J Quinn; P Seevers (0-9), M Galvin; T Brennan, M Gorman, D Seevers (0-1), K O'Loughlin, R Brennan (0-1), A Cunnane (1-0). Subs: T Gallagher for J Quinn, J Hunt for K O'Loughlin, D Reilly for A Cunnane.
Referee: C Rehill (Fermanagh).
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