Sligo (Cup)

Late Andy Mulligan goal provided surprise result for the Youths tonight as they progressed past Sligo on another rotten night, weather-wise, for football. With a howling gale blowing straight across the pitch, Shane Keegan made eight changes from the XI which started against Rovers last Monday and went with Graham Doyle, Aidan Friel, Lasty, Lee, Andrew O'Connor, Danny Ledwith, Peter Higgins, Shane Dempsey, Conor Whittle and with debutant Eoin Porter playing behind Roxy Keenan up front. The gale won out for the first 20 minutes or so as neither side was able to test the opposing keeper. Then, on the 20 minute mark, Roxy won the ball up front and it eventually fell to Shane Dempsey who did really well to keep a difficult volley on target and it flew past Schlingermann in the Sligo goal for 1-0 to the home side. As expected, Sligo were playing the neater football at this stage but were unable to complete any of their promising moves. On the half hour, Wexford's Porter got a yellow for a tackle. With seven to go in the half, Roxy just couldn't reach a good cross from Andrew O'Connor. Frieler then got a yellow for a very obvious pull-back, and from the resulting free, Graham Doyle had to make his first good save by spreading himself to deny Cretaro from close in to leave the Youths happy to go in 1-0 up at half-time. Sligo hadn't really gone through the gears in the first half.

Sligo definitely upped the tempo in the second period and played much better as a result. However, Schlingermann had to make a good save on the quarter hour to keep out a decent effort by Porter after a long throw by Roxy. Three minutes later, Cretaro was allowed travel a long way into the Youth's box by the Wexford defence, and he tucked a low shot into the left-hand corner to give Doyle no chance for 1-1. Sligo's Sadlier then got in a good cross which the Wexford defence cleared with difficulty. With ten minutes to go, Jonny Bonner came on in place of Shane Dempsey for Wexford and further Wexford subs were Conor O'Keeffe and Andy Mulligan. With the game looking like it was going to end in a draw, Sligo made the mistake of giving the ball away cheaply on three occasions in the last few minutes in their own half. From the third of these errors, the ball fell to Jonny Bonner who waited and waited until the right run was made, and he picked out Andy Mulligan who tucked the ball past the advancing Schlingermann into the bottom right-hand corner to give the Youths an unlikely win at 2-1 after four minutes of injury time.

Best for Wexford were Shane Dempsey and Roxy Keenan while Eoin Porter, whom I've not seen before, really impressed on his debut with some cool control for a player who apparently has only just turned 17. One to really look out for in the future. For Sligo, Cretaro and Adebayo-Rowling again impressed for the away side. Looked to be only 260 at the match on a bad night.