Sligo rout London to boost promotion chances

Sligo got their promotion hopes back on track with a comfortable 18-point defeat of London at Markievicz Park.

First-half goals from Niall Murphy and Brian Egan sparked Sligo's surge, with Murphy also netting in the second-half for a personal haul of 2-05.

Each team finished with 14 players because of the second-half dismissals of Conor Griffin (Sligo) and Conal Gallagher (London), with each player picking up a second booking in separate incidents.

The Exiles came to Sligo placed second in the standings, with three wins from four games. They started with one Sligo native in their starting XV, Eoin Flanagan, and another two on the bench, Eunan Curran and James Hynes.

London’s talisman and team captain Liam Gavaghan has Sligo connections, too, with his dad, also called Liam, hailing from Aclare in south Sligo.

Sligo, looking to bounce back from back-to-back defeats against Tipperary and Cavan, brought Brian Egan into their starting team for the suspended David Quinn, with Pat Hughes unavailable and replaced by Mikey Gordon.

London, breeze-assisted for the first-half, opened the scoring with a fine point from Conal Gallagher.

Sligo began to assert themselves and this showed with their first goal in the ninth minute when Niall Murphy goaled after fine work from Alan Reilly.

Within a minute Sligo had a second goal – this time Brian Egan found the net from Keelan Cawley’s assist.

Liam Gavaghan kicked a superb point for London but Sligo continue to dominate. One of their best points of the first-half came from midfielder Sean Carrabine following a slick exchange of passes with Patrick O’Connor.

London threatened sporadically – there were goal opportunities for Fearghal McMahon and Thomas Lenihan – and Liam Gavaghan kicked another