Sligo hoping slow start is well behind them

Eamonn O'Hara interviewIt would be a safe bet to draw a line through Sligo this summer. Abysmal in the league, their solitary victory against Wexford came in the wake of a 21-point drubbing at the hands of Galway and Peter Ford. Their old manager coming back to haunt them.

The Wexford result seemed like the last vestiges of pride as Armagh doubled their score a week later before Limerick and Kildare twisted the knife. Every Sunday was a punishing exercise and now they are back in Division Two.

Dominic Corrigan looks to have come in at the tail-end of a decent period in Sligo football, as victory over London is all they have to show since beating Tyrone and rattling eventual All-Ireland champions Armagh in 2002.

Eamonn O'Hara got an All Star that year. Starting with Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon this Sunday, the long serving talisman will play hurt through the championship. So why keep coming back? "I am hanging in until I win something. That's what drives you on. That's what keeps the hunger going. It would be different if we had won a couple of Connacht titles. Then I'm sure it gets harder to stay motivated, but I have won nothing."

There are some redeeming issues here. Corrigan only arrived after Christmas because he was fulfilling commitments with Tyrone county champions Carrickmore in the Ulster club championship. That meant all the heavy leg work only got done during the league, leaving players exhausted when Sunday rolled around.

With the graft now done, they started playing football recently and beat Longford, Mayo and Donegal in challenge matches. Also, O'Hara returned after rupturing ankle ligaments in training on St Patrick's Day. He needs an operation, but it can wait until the county are done with him. "It's sore after every game. I ice it and have to take anti-inflammatory tablets. An operation looks likely, but we will look at it after the championship."

Corrigan's late arrival had a lot to do with the league slump, although O'Hara insists Paul Durcan, Neil Egan and Tommy Brehony held the fort well. At the same time, he refused to dodge poor results and even plays down the recent revival.

"The challenge games are all well and good, but you can't look too much into them. We can't possibly have played as bad as we did in the league. We had to improve somewhat. Dom came in late, well he was appointed late, so we missed out on the vital physical training of winter. The heavy work. We ended up doing that work during the league so it was a mix and match type of campaign."

Injury and retirement didn't help either, but players like Adrian Marren and Brian Curran got further exposure at this level. A lot of the "key players" are on the mend, with the exception of Dessie Sloyan and Nigel Clancy, but beat Leitrim and those two will be ready for Galway on June 12th. After what Ford masterminded back in March, there is plenty of unfinished business festering beneath the surface.

"We hadn't played well before the Galway game," continued O'Hara. "We had our chances in the first half, but didn't put up the scores. Peter Ford got it tactically right on the day and they punished us.

"But at the time, the depth of our panel was not up to it. Neither was the level of fitness required, with a lot of guys still off the pace of intercounty level. They responded well enough with a good win against Wexford, but winning one (league) game wasn't good enough."

Try to cajole him into glancing ahead to Galway and he'll sniff the bait, but he refuses to look past Leitrim. "There is no reason why we cannot . . . " he starts before cautiously changing tack. "Look, there is a 50-50 chance of losing to Leitrim. The focus has to be to beat them, it would be crazy to look past that.

"They had a very good league campaign. Dessie Dolan (senior) has brought them on well, but look at Fermanagh. They also had a good league only to fall apart last weekend. Form doesn't matter much once the championship starts."

This much we know is true.