he last time Sligo and Carlow clashed-the Yeats County had a convincing victory over the Leinster men at home.
Unsurprisingly, that is one very strong reason why the Leinster men will be very determined to exact revenge for that heavy defeat, and derail Sligo’s on course drive for promotion.
That is the firm view of Sligo selector Noel McGuire as they face a really tricky away assignment this Saturday in Carlow.
But the stark fact is that Sligo must win their final two games if they want to assure promotion.
The Easkey man told The Sligo Champion; “We have to avoid looking at what other teams are doing, and fully focus on Carlow which will be a tough task this weekend.”
He continued: “Carlow have not been going great on the road, but they are a different proposition at home
“They are a strong outfit in Netwatch Cullen Park and former Sligo manager Niall Carew is their manager so we will have no secrets from them.
“We had a good win over them last year in Sligo so they will be determined to show that they are a much better side than last year.
“And they are at home as well which makes our task more difficult.
“It’s a long journey down and it’s a tough one and they will feel they did not perform against us last year and they will be out to prove a point.
“Dara Foley is their talisman and Ross Dunphy and Jordan Morrison in the half back line is also a major player.
“We are aware of the challenge, and we will be hoping to get the best out of our lads”.
Apart from Darragh Cummins,who is out for the rest of the League, Sligo do not have any major injury worries.
“He won’t feature sadly and he picked up an injury against Waterford”.
Meanwhile McGuire agreed that two late goals from a pretty outgunned Wexford side took some of the gloss of what was otherwise an impressive Sligo victory.
The final score was Sligo 1-20 Wexford 3-8 which was an impressive scoring rate for Tony McEntee’s free-scoring men.
“We were leading pretty well in the second half and just probably took out eye off the ball a bit towards the end.
“We conceded two goals that we would be disappointed with conceding but that is something we will be working on to make sure there is no repeat.
“It put a gloss on it, but the main thing is that we won.
“But we were happy with the score we put up and we led by 0-9 to 1-2 and then we pushed on in the second half”.
Seán Carrabine with seven points for the home side and substitute, Pat Spillane, who got the goal once again made a big impact in a pretty accurate forward line.
All six forwards have been hitting the target which is very encouraging for McGuire.
“The forwards have been putting up big scores and hopefully we can also convert some of those goal chances that we have been creating and we are working on that”.
And if Sligo’s scoring forwards click then they could take a huge step towards promotion.
Saturday’s match is at 5pm.
