Past experience means Sligo's Noel McGuire wary of threat posed by Leitrim

If anybody in the Sligo camp wants to know the danger posed by Leitrim in next Sunday’s Connacht SFC clash, well just ask selector Noel McGuire who was a member of the last Yeats County team turned over by the Green & Gold back in 2011, a memory still fresh in his mind!

“We’ve played Leitrim numerous times over the last couple of years and even going back to my own time, in 2011,” recalled Noel at the Connacht SFC press launch in Bekan, adding “We were operating in Division 2 that year, even though we ended up getting relegated but we felt we were at that level to push on.

“We were in the Connacht Final the previous year but Leitrim came to Sligo and turned us over. It is a game we always treat with the utmost respect, the last couple of years it has been a kick of the ball and we got the rub of the green in a couple of those games. We’re not expecting anything other than a real tough battle again on Sunday and hopefully our lads are fully ready for it and we’ll be doing everything we can to have them in the right frame of mind for that.”

Sligo finished fourth in Division 3 of the League with Noel feeling that the Yeatsmen should have been challenging for promotion: “We’d be happy with our League overall. Once you go up a Division, the first thing you want to do is stay in it and we got that established midway through the League. 

“In fairness, we were looking the other direction and a couple of games we probably could have done better in. But overall, I think it was a positive campaign for us. We finished fourth - a number of good performances, a couple of performances we wouldn’t have been happy with but I think, as a whole, it was a decent enough campaign.”

SLIGO ON ALERT FOR LEITRIM AMBUSH

Sligo experienced last year what Leitrim are going through right now with a championship game a week after a League Final and Noel sees positives in the experience: “Going back to our own experience, we wanted to get promoted and we were lucky enough to do that. We treated the league final as a stepping stone to build for the championship and I presume Leitrim will do the same. 

“I think it is another high profile game for them in Croke Park. We’d love to be in a League final ourselves, we wouldn’t make any secret of that, it didn’t work out for us - I’m sure Leitrim would swap it, they wanted to get promoted and they’re going to use it as a springboard for the championship game on Sunday.”

Sligo have been keeping a close eye on Leitrim’s progress and Noel has been impressed by their performances: “You have to give them a lot of credit, it looked like it was gone with a couple of games to go but going to Portlaoise and beating Laois was a marked result and that set them up for the last day against Tipperary and they got the business done. 

“Full credit to them, they’ve been close the last couple of years - we’ve been in the same position, we were lucky enough to get out and they’ve gone and done the job and fair play to them. We’ve plenty of experience playing against them, Ryan and Darragh are obviously getting a lot of the scores but there is an awful lot of work going on there obviously. 

“Tom Prior is another good forward for them and we know what they have around the middle of the field in terms of Pearce Dolan, Mark Plunkett, these guys. Donal Wrynn is a man who has caused us trouble in the past as well - we know that Leitrim have a lot of talent, I suppose the fact that both teams know each other fairly well, I think it is going to lead to a really tit for tat game, intensity and a huge battle on Sunday.”

CASEY MISSES OUT AS TEAMS NAMED FOR LEITRIM V SLIGO CONNACHT SFC CLASH

The fact that the teams have met so regularly with small margins between the teams adds to the occasion and Noel and Sligo are relishing a trip to Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada: “Supporters do seem to revel in it and a couple of the games have been in Carrick and we’re going back there again. We thought we were going to Hyde Park but we don’t mind going there, there is always a great atmosphere in Carrick.

“The stand is so close to the pitch and even us as a management team, you’re nearly swarmed up, grabbed up, into the whole thing because there is such a buzz coming off the crowd, from both the Sligo and Leitrim supporters. The game feeds off that and both the teams and the crowd feed off each other - there have been a couple of games where there have been some great battles and I’m not expecting anything other than that on Sunday.”