Limerick bow out of Tailteann Cup after heavy defeat to Sligo

“WE'RE better than what we played today,” was the disappointed reaction of manager Jimmy Lee to Limerick senior footballers' comprehensive 2-20 to 0-9 defeat to Sligo in Saturday's Tailteann Cup quarter-final in Markievicz Park.

“We tried everything, but it was just one of those days when we didn't take off," Limerick boss Lee added.

After three wins in the secondary national championship on the trot turned around a season that had opened with disappointments in both league and provincial competition, Limerick supporters in the 2,238 attendance who made the more than 300mile round trip were hoping to see further signs of progress in the squad. However, Sligo were well ahead of Offaly and Tipperary in terms of commitment and of London when it came to team development.

Right from the get-go, the Connacht men smothered their opponents' efforts to open up the scoring opportunities and, once they got their own supply lines moving, they had the result all but decided with three-quarters of the game still to go.

Much of their superiority was based on the finishing of Seán Carrabine whose five first-half scores matched the entire Limerick tally . Sligo were also powered by the all-action energy of of Darragh Cummins, Canice Mulligan and Alan McLoughlin in the midfield diamond who, not only kept driving their team-mates forward, but also snuffed out any attempts to break the continuous siege.

Although Limerick managed a few short passages of resistance either side of half-time, they couldn't maintain the long enough before Sligo stoked up the boiler again.

All in all, it was a lesson in squad development made even more intimidating by the fact that the winners drew just two of the side from three impressive under-20 teams in a row. Despite not being particularly big on the physical side, the Westerners' speed on the turnover, the support given to the player in possession and their willingness to attack and shoot from all angles provided a template for the next steps to be taken as Limerick try to rebuild a panel that has been riddled with injury and defections.

Although Limerick opened the game with two unbroken minutes of possession and took the lead when Iain Corbett pointed off Cillian Fahy's lay-off, the visitors fell behind when Carrabine pointed off Sligo's first break and then struck from a mark and from a free to put his side two ahead.

It only got worse for the visitors once their kickouts were immediately fired back at them and the ceaseless barrage led to points from Mulligan, Niall Murphy and Cian Lally's pair. Lee Deignan and Nathan Mullen then had them seven points ahead by the quarter mark before their opponents won enough primary possession to break the siege.

Peter Nash's pointed free and Tommy Childs score from play hinted at a minor recovery on its way. However, these scores only provoked another Sligo scoring burst as Cummins and Carrabine, from play, and from a free stretched their tally into double figures. Josh Ryan then came up from the Limerick goals to break the sequence with a point.

Coming up to the break, Lally added another two points to his tally before Fahy replied in added time to narrow Sligo's lead to 0-13 to 0-5 as the sides headed into the dressing rooms.

Ryan shaved another point from the deficit as he opened the second-half scoring from a '45. However, Limerick failed to add to it despite shading possession and any chances of a recovery disappeared when Deignan collected the return of his pass to McLoughlin to slide the ball under the advancing Ryan and into his net.

Pouncing on a kickout turnover, Cummins fisted over and this was followed by points from McLoughlin, Murphy's '45' after Bob Childs spread himself across O'Connor's goalbound shot and McLoughlin again, to extend Sligo's advantage to 14 points by the three-quarter mark.

After Carrabine added another point, Childs struck back and this was followed by Nash's pointed free. However, Sligo's efforts picked up again when another Carrabine free was followed by Mark Walsh fending off the challenges to fist across the face of the goals for O'Connor to flick to the net.

As the remaining subs piled on, Seán O'Dea pulled one back for Limerick during the shapeless closing minutes but the home team had the last say when Murphy finished the scoring from a free.

SCORERS: SLIGO: Seán Carrabine 0-7 (3 frees, 1 mark), Lee Deignan (1-1), Patrick O.Connor 1-0, Cian Lally, Niall Murphy (2 frees) 0-3 each, Darragh Cummins, Alan McLoughlin 0-2 each, Nathan Mullen, Canice Mulligan 0-1 each; LIMERICK: Peter Nash (2 frees), Josh Ryan (1 '45', 1 free) 0-2 each, Iain Corbett, Tommy Childs, Cillian Fahy, Bob Childs, Seán O'Dea 0-1 each.

SLIGO: Aidan Devanney; Evan Lyons, Lee Deignan, Paul McNamara; Brian Cox, Darragh Cummins, Nathan Mullen; Paul Kilcoyne, Canice Mulligan; Cian Lally, Alan McLoughlin, Seán Carrabine; Mikey Gordon, Patrick O'Connor, Niall Murphy. SUBS: Jack Lavin for Brian Cox (half-time), Mark Walsh for Mikey Gordon (53 minutes), Donal Conlon for Cian Lally (54 minutes), Eoghan Smith for Darragh Cummins (56 minutes), Pat Spillane for Alan McLoughlin (63 minutes).

LIMERICK: Josh Ryan, Tony McCarthy, Séan O'Dea, Cormac Woulfe; Barry Coleman, Cillian Fahy, Paul Maher; Tommy Childs, Iain Corbett; James Naughton, Emmet Rigter, Cathal Downes; Danny Neville, Bob Childs, Peter Nash. SUBS: Jim Liston for Tony McCarthy (half-time), Bryan Nix for James Naughton (44 minutes), Shane Costelloe for Cathal Downes (48 minutes), Brian Ahern for Bob Childs (60 minutes), Andrew Meade for Emmet Rigter (66 minutes).

REFEREE: Barry Cassidy (Derry).