Enjoying the journey key for Sligo in All-Ireland U-20 quest

Ahead of their All-Ireland U-20 final against Kildare, Sligo manager Paul Henry has hailed "a good crop of lads" that are under his care, a group that are enjoying their football.

The Yeats County, after winning a maiden Connacht title in the grade in 2022, retained their crown last month and then last weekend edged out Kerry to claim a place in the Kingspan Breffni decider against opposition who defeated them at the last-four stage 12 months ago.

Sligo football is on the rise, with Tony McEntee's senior side gaining promotion from Division 4 and then reaching a Connacht final. They were well beaten by Galway in the Nestor Cup decider but they still have three games to come in the All-Ireland round-robin, an opportunity then for further development.

Henry, who led his county to a provincial minor win in 2021, took on the U20s at the start of the year. It's a continuation of the journey that he and much of his squad have been on for a number of years.

He told 2fm's Game On: "I got involved with a friend of mine Adrian Donohue who had started with the development squad. I had done a bit of coaching with Adrian with the club (Curry) at a time when some of our lads were at the under-14 development stage. We've brought a few of them through.

"One of the main areas of focus was making sure these lads enjoyed it and ended up bonding as a good group. We tried to ensure that the better footballers in Sligo, that wanted to play would enjoy the experience of coming into Sligo GAA, that they wanted to play GAA rather than soccer or rugby.

"From that we could see that the skill level and technical level was improving. It is improving throughout Sligo at the minute between all the different schools and coaches that are employed by Sligo