IT WAS worth going to Hyde Park yesterday to see at first-hand what will simply have to be the Goal of the Year.

It was an absolute classic effort, involving three simple plays that brought the ball from 100 yards out to the back of the Galway net in the 25th minute.

Sligo centre half-back Michael McNamara made some ground and hit a long footpass to his full-forward David Kelly who had come 50 yards out from the Galway goal in anticipation of such a ball. He took possession and there immediately, coming in at speed, was Sligo midfielder Eamon O'Hara to take a perfect ball and head for goal with serious intent.

He was going for three points from that moment and on he stormed before sending a rocket to the top of the net. It was the sort of goal young players dream about but hardly ever see nowadays and I hope it is shown at every Cúl summer camp in Ireland this year.

I know very few of the star forwards from other counties more famous than Sligo who would have had the guts and the confidence to career through such a long distance while being chased, keep their composure and kick such a perfect goal under pressure as Eamon O'Hara did. It's seldom we see truly heroic deeds in Gaelic football by individuals in these over-coached times, but O'Hara's goal was one such effort and deserves to be recognised.

Of course, the main news story from Roscommon was Sligo's shock victory over Galway and their first Connacht title since 1975 but that dramatic goal was the pivotal moment on such an historic day.

It defined the Sligo challenge as brave, confident and one of utter determination not to bow the knee, as so often before to the acknowledged modern-day kings of Connacht football, Galway. O'Hara was the spiritual leader of this Sligo team and scoring that goal was the tinder that set the rest of the Sligo players' game alight for the remainder of the match.

And boy how that Sligo spirit burned right to the dramatic final seconds as they dealt with everything that Galway threw at them. Most other teams would have been demoralised by their failure to convert a rake of frees inside 40 yards in the second half, but this Sligo outfit has so much spirit that nothing could deflate them. It would have been a travesty had Sligo not held out in that incredibly tense final few minutes.

They were miles ahead of Galway all through the game, but particularly from the time O'Hara scored his goal.

The performance of the Sligo backs was truly heroic and their full-back line, in particular of Charles Harrison, Noel McGuire and Ross Donovan, epitomised the attitude of the whole Sligo team. They were first to the ball, tackled hard without fouling and burst out with the ball with sheer determination that we rarely see nowadays.

We can analyse this game 'til the cows come home but there is really no need for that. Sligo won simply because they played with ferocious determination, extremely tight discipline and a game plan which dictated that when one of their players won possession, no matter what part of the field he was in, there would be a half-dozen colleagues immediately available to make the maximum use of that possession.

It was a policy that worked brilliantly and by successfully retaining possession in this way time and again, Sligo also deprived Galway of the ball to such an extent that their forwards operated on scraps for long periods.

But even when possession did come their way, Galway's forwards were only a pale imitation of recent years. More flash than substance would be the most accurate description of their play on this occasion and a meagre six points from play, none at all in the second half, from an attack that included Michael Meehan, Padraig Joyce, Ja Fallon and Derek Savage is clear proof of that. Still, taking off Michael Meehan with 25 minutes to go seemed an odd decision and a sign of great uncertainty in the Galway camp.

This was a terrific GAA occasion at Hyde Park which more than matched what I experienced in Killarney at the Munster final last week. We had high drama, a shock result, some marvellous whole-hearted football played in the most sporting of manners and a whole rake of outstanding individual performances mainly from Sligo players.

The refereeing of Brian Crowe was truly outstanding and should be put on DVD and given as a present to every other referee in the country. But when the players have the right attitude, as was the case yesterday, with no mouthing into opponents' faces, no sly off-the-ball stuff and no faking injury to get an opponent into trouble, the referee's task is much easier.

Now let's see how many of the so-called 'leading' county teams left in the championship will play their games this year with the true sportsmanship we saw yesterday.

Thirty-two years is a hell of a long time to wait for a Connacht title when only five counties are involved, plus a couple of outsiders. Sligo's victory yesterday will bring untold benefits to a county where things have not been easy in recent years, just as it did in Leitrim when they won their historic '94 Connacht title at Hyde Park also.

Messy

The Sligo county chairman John Murphy was landed with a really messy county manager situation shortly after taking over in late 2005, but showed great strength of character to take the situation in hand, appoint Tommy Breheny and stand by him in difficult circumstances.

Yesterday both men got their reward for honesty and integrity and this was a colossal triumph for Breheny. He put out a brilliantly-organised team, not over-endowed with classy footballers, but one laden with indomitable spirit and the sheer raw courage underdogs always need to overcome highly-fancied and traditionally-endowed opponents like Galway.

It could well go down as the managerial coup of 2007. Sligo will not win this year's All-Ireland but they will trouble some more big names.

But that's not the point - they have regained the Connacht title after 32 years of heartache and the scenes of joy in Hyde Park at 4.38 yesterday are the greatest argument, maybe the only one, for the retention of the provincial championships.

Limp Longford need to wise up

WESTMEATH footballers returned to the championship stage with a bang when they destroyed Longford at Cusack Park in a repeat of their Leinster championship game of eight weeks ago which Longford had won by three points.

Dessie Dolan was in sparkling form and he was fouled on numerous occasions while big brother Gary shone at full-forward.

Martin Flanagan and David Duffy dominated midfield and listed full-back Donal Donoghue revelled in his outfield role after he followed out his roaming opponent Paddy Dowd. But it was the manner in which Westmeath mounted attacking movements from their backline and came sweeping downfield in droves which was most impressive.

Longford had no answer to these marauding raids, often led by wing forward Denis Glennon who scored four points from play.

This was a devastating defeat for Longford after their relative heroics of last year when they won three games in the qualifiers.

A defeat to Laois in Leinster followed by this hammering sends them right back to the drawing board.

The performance of their leading players, with the exception of David Hannify, was very poor and maybe some of them are giving too much heed to the nice press they have been receiving.

- Eugene McGee