Connacht U-20 champions Sligo see off Mayo to reach provincial decider

Sligo 0-17 Mayo 1-09

Sligo, who won their first ever Connacht U-20 title last year, advanced to a final showdown with Galway next week as they recorded a deserved win over Mayo in Bekan.

The reigning champions built on an interval advantage of two points to set up a Connacht final date with Galway in Tuam next Wednesday night.

They will bid to become the first Sligo side to win consecutive Connacht titles in the same grade and with their seniors through to a provincial semi-final meeting with New York and just 70 minutes away from the All-Ireland round robin series, these are good times for the Yeats County.

It's been a bad week for Mayo and after going down to Roscommon in the senior quarter-final, they were well defeated in this one and are now without a Connacht U-20 crown since 2018.

It was obvious to their supporters at the Connacht Centre of Excellence, after the game was switched from Castlebar, that they were in trouble at the break when they turned around trailing by 0-09 to 1-04 having had the advantage of the diagonal wind in the opening half.

The Sligo full-forward line of Matt Henry, Daire O’Boyle and Luke Marren were a big threat and struck for 0-06 in that opening half.

Dara Hurley settled Mayo with a first-minute point but Sligo made quick ball count and hit for three points in as many minutes from Marren, Ronan Niland and Henry before Mayo senior Bob Tuohy responded with a good score.

An excellent passing movement which included Tuohy, Tom O’Flaherty and James Maheady ended with Fenton Kelly fisting home a goal to lead by 1-02 to 0-03 at the end of the opening quarter.

Tuohy and O’Flaherty added points either side of another effort from Henry, but the the reigning champions took over and hit five points without