Semi-finals are warm-up acts for Galway vs Mayo

By JIM CARNEY GALWAY and Sligo renew rivalry at Pearse Stadium next Saturday evening (6.00 o'clock) as the only two western counties who failed to get anything of merit from last year's Connacht Senior Football Championship. The 2011 Connacht champions Mayo beat London, Galway, Roscommon and Cork on their way to the All-Ireland semi-finals in which they gave a creditable display in losing to Kerry; Roscommon had big wins over New York and Leitrim before losing to Mayo and then they played well against Tyrone, although defeated 3-19 to 1-14; Leitrim had the memory of a well-earned 1-10 to 0-10 win over Sligo to sustain them after losing heavily to Roscommon next time out, and to Down at Páirc Esler, Newry.[private] For Galway and Sligo, it was a very bad Championship campaign. At MacHale Park, Castlebar on June 26th it was Mayo 1-12 Galway 1-6, and in the 'back door' series on Saturday, July 9th at Páirc Tailteann, Navan it was Meath 0-11 Galway 0-10. After that shock defeat by Leitrim, Sligo then lost away to Wicklow in the qualifiers, 1-18 to 0-16. So, it was the same story for Galway and Sligo in Championship football last year: played two, lost two. For 2012, Sligo retained Kevin Walsh at the helm; he's now in his fourth year in charge. But after losing to Meath, despite a battling display in Navan, Galway did not ask Tomás Ó Flatharta back and gave the job to 'one of their own,' Alan Mulholland, manager of Galway's 2007 All-Ireland winning minor team and the 2011 All-Ireland U-21 champions. Sligo were delighted that Big Kevin stayed with them. A legendary figure in his native Galway, the Killanin man is popular with everybody he deals with in Sligo on and off the field. And so well respected by his three comrades in the management team that they've stuck together and still believe they have a team good enough to bridge the gap since their last Connacht title, in 2007. Interestingly, as Sligo Champion sports editor Leo Grey reminded me this week, when Galway played Sligo in the 2002 Connacht Championship, Kevin Walsh was at midfield for Galway playing against three members of the Sligo panel who are now selectors along with Big Kevin â€â€ Paul Durcan, Dessie Sloyan and Paul Taylor. Can they engineer a Connacht title this year? It's highly unlikely, in my opinion. They suffered a morale-shattering defeat in the 2010 final, losing to Roscommon (0-14 to 0-12) while false favourites; Ros' under the management of Fergal O'Donnell really fancied themselves to win that Connacht final. Twelve months later, the mood wasn't right in Sligo and that probably also accounted for their National League relegation from Division 2, along with Antrim. This year, in fairness, they did reasonably well in Division 3, winning four of their seven matches including a particularly impressive scoreline in Round 2: a 4-14 to 1-17 home win over Wexford, on February 12th. In the end, they finished on eight League points along with Roscommon and Antrim. The two promoted counties were Longford (13 pts) and Wexford (10 pts). Sligo's one bad result in this year's N.F.L. was losing away to Cavan (0-14 to 1-8) on March 3rd. In contrast, they got a morale-boosting big win in New York on May 6th, 3-21 to 0-6, with the full-forward line of Stephen Coen (2-4), Adrian Marren (0-6) and Mark Breheny (0-3) scoring 2-13 between them. That was in the first round of the Connacht Championship, with the winner of Galway vs Roscommon next. The reason why it's at a Galway venue is that Markievicz Park hosted the Galway-Sligo replay two years ago, with the home team winning by 1-14 to 0-16 after the drawn game at Pearse Stadium, 1-10 apiece. Sligo won in New York without play-anywhere Eamonn O'Hara, star forward David Kelly, midfielder Stephen Gilmartin and the forward who scored the winning point against Galway in the 2010 replay, Colm McGee. O'Hara and Kelly are now on the way back after injury and not certain to play next Saturday but Kelly, Gilmartin and McGee all played for Tubbercurry in the County Championship last Sunday week. Everything that's promising about the new era started by Alan Mulholland, Alan Flynn and Donal Ó Fátharta would explode in Galway faces if Saturday's match produced the wrong result. The football atmosphere in the county is great again; you could sense that at Hyde Park and even more so at the County Championship matches on the following weekend. The county senior team set-up is really good now; the players have bought into the collective effort and there is no complacency, no loss of focus from one day to the next. No doubt about it, it's all building up to Galway vs Mayo in the Connacht final at Pearse Stadium on Sunday, July 15th. From a Galway point of view, anything else is unthinkable. When Galway lost to Sligo in 2007 and 2010, they were to a significant extent self-inflicted defeats â€â€ I say that with no disrespect to Sligo. It's much different now, not least in how well Galway have played their second-half football this year, and how expertly the team management used Padraic Joyce and Michael Meehan against Roscommon. Quite simply, I don't see an upset looming this weekend and I expect Joe Bergin and Paul Conroy to again be the main men in a Galway victory. IN the Connacht Championship records, it's Galway 26, Sligo 5. Galway victories over Sligo: 1909, 1922, 1929, 1933, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1945, 1954, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1965, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1978, 1986, 1990, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2009. Sligo victories over Galway: 1930, 1947, 1975, 2007, 2010. There were five draws between Galway and Sligo, in 1971, 1995, â€Ëœ96, â€Ëœ99 and 2010. The first four of the five replays were won by Galway. 2012 Connacht SFC, at Ruislip, London last Sunday: Leitrim 0-12 London 1-8; winners play Mayo at Castlebar on June 24th.[/private]