Stuttering start by McEntee’s men is cause for concern

MacHale Park was the venue for the best football match of the weekend, but about 150 kilometres away Mayo’s Connacht Championship opponents on April 6 were embroiled in a mini-classic of their own on Saturday night.

Brewster Park in Enniskillen staged Sligo’s 19 points apiece draw with Fermanagh in Division 3, a result which gives Sligo their first point of the league campaign.

That result has brought Sligo to a crossroads in their season, even at this early stage.

Right now, retention of Division 3 status is what Sligo is trying to achieve. That in itself is a disappointment; many locally would have viewed 2025 as the year in which Sligo could aspire to promotion to Division 2, the level at which the county should aim to be at consistently.

For one reason or another, Sligo haven’t been able to achieve that on a regular basis over the last decade or so, but now felt like the opportune time to make some ground at senior level given the underage success of recent years.

What has transpired, though, has been anything other than what Tony McEntee and his charges would have envisaged during their league preparations.

The reason the fare was so intriguing across the border on Saturday night wasn’t because Sligo had participated in a ding-dong, over and back score-for-score battle but rather the visitors coughed up the last seven points of the game. The manner of Fermanagh’s comeback does suggest some fragility in Sligo’s confidence right now and given they lost their first three matches in rather disappointing fashion, that’s understandable.

I took in Sligo’s opening round defeat to Offaly in Tullamore, a game in which the visitors appeared to be in a reasonable position in at half-time. However, they were wiped out in the second period. They also put in a good showing against Kildare before succumbing late on, while Laois dealt with Sligo's efforts quite comfortably in their encounter in Portlaoise. Saturday's performance in Enniskillen, however, marked a major improvement.

Sligo’s early season struggles might come down to a few things. First and foremost, the new set of rules have taken some adjusting to for some counties and Sligo appear to be one of them.

Under McEntee, Sligo have become known as a team with a lot of pace, but that’s not as much of an advantage when you don’t have a fair chunk of primary possession. The change in the dynamic at kick-out time when most contests are now 50-50 has made things more difficult for a Sligo team that struggles for physicality at the best of times. That is now being laid bare in more obvious fashion with so many aerial jousts for the ball from restarts.

Secondly, success is never linear. Over the last couple of years, Sligo have made progress – perhaps slower that some people might have liked or expected – but progress nonetheless. This year, so far, has shown a slowing in that process but all is not yet lost.

I think it’s also pretty evident so far this year just how important a player Sean Carrabine was to the whole Sligo operation. His absence thus far has shown how integral a part he was in how Sligo play – I would guess his possession stats were as high as anyone else in the squad when he was there – and his ability to contribute scores is also a major miss.

The start to the league also presents a few questions which will only be answered as the year progresses.

After a couple of years of good displays that didn’t quite yield the ultimate in terms of results – think of last year’s narrow defeats to Galway and Down, or the 2022 Tailteann Cup semi-final defeat to Cavan – have those near-misses had a negative impact? Have the underage players who have graduated from the under-20 teams of recent years been given enough game time or a chance to stake their claim for a place on the team or squad?

All of those questions will be posed at season’s end, I’m sure, but first and foremost the players and management need to be given the space and time to address their current poor run of form, starting this Sunday against Clare at Markievicz Park.

There is a hell of a lot left to play for, but to help steady things and ensure most of the momentum of recent seasons is retained, Sligo need to hold on to their Division 3 status. This weekend’s fixture against Clare is a free-hit in many ways. They have their eye on promotion after last week’s win over Kildare and will be viewed as favourites to make the jump to the second tier alongside the Lilywhites.

The real litmus test for Sligo is a clash with Antrim at Corrigan Park on Belfast on Sunday week. In all likelihood, that will become a straight shoot-out for safety with Andy McEntee’s team on four points and with Kildare and Sligo to play.

A visit to a notoriously difficult ground to win at, with so much on the line, might be exactly the challenge Sligo need to spark their season into life.

The next couple of weeks will likely decide how Sligo look at the remainder of the year. A morale-boosting, backs to the wall win in Belfast might well provide the fillip for an upturn in fortunes. It would certainly allow for a more optimistic outlook as the ground hardens and Mayo emerge on the horizon.

On Mayo, they look to be on the right track. They are building slowly, but there is compelling evidence to suggest they are making ground. Saturday's win was by two points – the same margin of victory as the Tyrone win a fortnight ago – but the manner of the performance provided a lot of positives.

In this new era, Gaelic football has become much more chaotic. Mayo have tended to thrive in that environment over the last decade or more, so perhaps they are poised to make a big impact this summer.

A league campaign under the radar may be no bad thing.