The All Ireland Senior Football Championship gets underway on Sunday night as Sligo travel to the Gaelic Grounds to face New York. There has been a huge media focus on this game, with pundits from all over the country giving New York a realistic chance of causing an upset.
New York last played a championship match in May 2016 when they ran Roscommon to one point, in a game they should have won. Roscommon continued their poor form after that New York win, eventually being dumped out in the qualifiers by Clare. Interesting to see the handicap in that game 12 months ago was -21pts, for this weekends game its just -3pts.
So what has changed for New York since they ran Roscommon so close? Well they have been able to draft in a couple of new players like Dublin Hurler Danny Sutcliffe and former Mayo corner back Tom Cunniffe. However, they have lost a number of key players since that 2016 game. That day they scored an impressive 0-17pts of which 0-15 came from four players who will not be involved come Sunday. Big Ardrahan man Johnny Glynn is also unavailable as he has committed himself to the Galway hurlers for the season. Former captain Brian Connor is absent too due to injury.
Looking at Sligo, they are missing a few players through injuries and exams but they still should have enough to take care of New York. Manager Neil Carew has been focused on this game since the league finished, with his team training on astro turf in preparation for this challenge. People also seem to have forgotten that Sligo have beaten Tipp and Louth and drew with Armagh so far in 2017.There is also no better time to play New York than the year after they have run a team close as Sligo will be fully aware of the challenge ahead of them. Players like Pat Hughes, Adrian Marren, Mark Breheny, Brendan Egan and Ross Donovan should see Sligo comfortably over the line.
We expect that Sligo will have too much quality for New York, and they should be able to pull away in the 2nd half. The 4/9 available with Boyles is very generous but we will have a 3pt stake on Sligo -4 at 7/5 and also a 1pt stake on Sligo -6 at 13/5 both with Paddy Power.
