Sligo spirit sparks comeback

There was a special ring of sincerity to the sound of the standing ovation afforded the Sligo team by their appreciative supporters as the side left the pitch at the end of an absorbing if by no means spectacular encounter at Croke Park yesterday.

The sides will now have to prepare for a replay, which has been fixed for Saturday week, at Clones.

The western county again showed that they are more than well able to take over the mantle of Meath as the game's great survivors.

What they achieved against Tyrone on the same pitch a fortnight earlier was matched by an exhilarating second-half performance that appeared to catch Armagh by surprise and left them seemingly glued to the ground after they had looked to be in control.

Not even the sending off of left-wing back David Durkin for allegedly striking an opponent was going to disrupt the flow of Peter Ford's team once they took flight from shortly after the interval.

Both teams had contrived to produce a poor example of the code in a scrappy first half and Armagh, thanks to a brilliant goal by Steven McDonnell, just about held the half-time advantage, 1-5 to 0-6.

The second half was only just over four minutes old when Sligo, after offering a hugely disappointing first half, were trailing by seven points. It seemed at this stage that the heart had been torn out of the Sligo challenge.

The industry, courage and inspirational qualities of Brendan Phillips, who operated in most defensive positions, spread like wild fire to his colleagues, including four substitutes, and it was obvious that Armagh were set to endure severe consequences.

The tentative approach of the first-half performance was replaced by a gutsy display of true grit and character and one which Armagh found increasingly difficult to contain.

At first the recovery was slow burning with points from John McPartland and Dessie Sloyan but, from the moment in the 53rd minute when substitute Barry O'Hagan slotted a point to maintain the Ulster men's six-point advantage, Armagh were forced into struggling with the basics and were denied the chances of registering a score during the final 21 minutes.

Five unanswered Sligo points flowed from the boots of Sloyan (2), substitute Padraig Doohan, the energetic Phillips and Dara McGarty.

Perhaps the last two of these points typified the spirt of the Sligo side; Phillips as he moved forward picked up a pass from Sloyan out on the left to send over a marvellous score.

In the second minute of injury time the Armagh full back, Justin McNulty, was desperately trying to clear his lines out on the right flank but the ever-alert McGarty intercepted a looped pass before picking off the equaliser.

John Toal did Trojan first-half work for Armagh in sustaining the Ulster champion's midfield challenge.

Eamonn O'Hara was yet to enrich that particular area for Sligo as was the case with Paul Durcan. Suddenly, and without having scored for 10 minutes, Armagh hit a purple patch.

John McEntee hoisted a huge ball towards the Sligo goalposts and Stephen McDonnell was first to react to land a great goal.

This gave Armagh a 1-4 to 0-3 lead after 21 minutes of the half but within the space of a half minute Diarmuid Marsden took a flick pass and, with only Curran to beat, sent his shot screaming into the back of the net by the left post.

If Armagh were patchy in that first half Sligo were a great deal worse. The Connacht representatives had spent too much time looking for a man to pass to instead of being more incisive when the opportunity presented itself.

While Óisín McConville was the obvious threat in the Armagh forward line, Sloyan did equally well up front for Sligo.

The abiding memory of a curious game for Armagh will be the manner in which Sligo came thundering down on their defence with such stunning waves of attacks.

The Armagh defence, and especially half-backs Aidan O'Rourke, Kieran McGeeney, and Andrew McCann, were given more reason than most to recall an uncomfortable time although all three were sound. They had to be.

HOW THEY LINED OUT

SLIGO: 1 J Curran; 4 P Naughton, 2 N Carew, 6 B Phillips, 5 N McGuire, 3 N Clancy, 7 D Durkin; 8 P Durcan, 9 E O'Hara; 10 J McPartland, 11 K Quinn, 12 D McGarthy; 13 D Sloyan, 14 M Brehony, 15 G McGowan.

Subs: T Brennan for Brehony 14 mins; M Cosgrove for Naughton 40 mins; S Davey for McGowan 52 mins; P Doohan for Brennan 59 mins.

ARMAGH: 1 B Tierney; 2 E McNulty, 3 J McNulty, 4 F Bellew; 5 A O'Rourke, 6 K McGeeney, 7 A McCann; 8 J Toal, 9 P McGrane; 10 P McKeever, 11 J McEntee, 12 O McConville; 13 S McDonnell, 14 R Clarke, 15 D Marsden.

Subs: B O'Hagan for Clarke 42 mins; P McCormack for Bellew 50 mins; B Duffy for McKeever 62 mins.

YELLOW CARDS

Armagh: J McNulty F Bellew A O'Rourke P McGrane O McConville J McEntee.

RED CARDS

Sligo: D Durkin.