London draw a boost for Sligo

Sligo's courageous performance against Mayo in this year's Connacht final, which they lost by a point, has opened up new possibilities for the county and their hopes have been given a huge boost by the fact that their opening match in next year's championship will be against London.

London have been playing in the Connacht championship for many years and, although they have won only one match - against Leitrim in the early Seventies - they have always given the opposition a searching test. This was the case this year when Leitrim needed extra time and a controversial penalty to overcome their challenge in Ruislip.

Sligo will now travel to Ruislip next June for the preliminary round of the championship and the Connacht Council is expected to rule out the idea of extra time in the event of a draw and opt for a replay in Markievicz Park should the teams be level at the end of normal time.

The winners of the tie then go into the Connacht semi-final the pairings for which will be decided when the draw is made live on television from Croke Park on Sunday night (9.0).

Sligo have been drawn in what is, possibly, the toughest division in the new National League format. Their first match will be against Dublin in Markievicz Park and in later rounds they will face All-Ireland champions, Kerry, Leinster champions, Offaly, Ulster champions Cavan as well as Tyrone, Carlow and Wexford.

After a National League campaign of such difficulty a Championship match against London looks less than daunting.

Meanwhile, the decision of the Leinster Council to allow Dublin and Offaly to compete in the 1998 under-21 Leinster Championship has been widely welcomed. There were few, if any, who regarded the original ban on both counties as harsh but, on mature reflection, the decision was regarded as wrong insofar as it punished players who had not been involved in the fracas at Parnell Park in March. In fact players who were not even at the match were being punished for the deeds of others.

That has now been put to rights and the Leinster Council took no more than five minutes to decide to rescind the decision in Portlaoise on Tuesday night. The council did decide, however, that neither county will be allowed home advantage in the under-21 competition for the next three years.

Offaly will therefore be away to the winners of the Laois-Longford tie next year while Dublin will play away against Westmeath in their opening match.

The Derry county board has ratified the addition of Enda Gormley to the management team of the county for the coming National League and Championship competitions. The appointment is seen as bringing to an end the career of Gormley who was a very influential figure in the success of Derry teams in the early part of the decade culminating in the winning of the All-Ireland championship in 1993.

Gormley (31) has been plagued by knee injuries for the past few years. He will now join Brian Mullins, Anthony McGurk and Frank Kearney on the Derry management team where his reputation as a player and tactician will be of great value.

Details of the approach which the Ulster Council of the GAA intends to adopt to the shameful scenes after the Dunloy-Lavey Ulster club hurling final in Casement Park last Sunday are expected to be revealed today. The council met in Monaghan last night and, behind closed doors, decided on what procedure would be followed.

It is understood that the report of the referee John Anthony Gribben of Down was made available to the delegates and that a decision on the use of video-tape evidence was taken.

The Dunloy club is generally regarded as being mainly culpable insofar as the after-match violence is concerned and the likelihood now is that they will be removed from the competition, at least for this year, and that Lavey will be allowed into the All-Ireland semifinals.