**All Ireland Football Championship Round 2A Qualifier **

Sligo 2-15 Leitrim 0-10

By John Fallon at Markievicz Park

Niall Carew’s Sligo advanced to the next round of the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers with an impressive victory at Markievicz Park.

They were looking to bounce back after surrendering an eight points interval lead to Roscommon the Connacht semi-final.

They again built up an eight points lead by the break in this one, but the difference this time was the way they pushed on to close out the deal.

They won the toss and used the wind to good advantage and by the interval were 0-12 to 0-4 in front.

Star of the show was full-forward Niall Murphy, who kicked five superb points from play in that opening half.

Two early Mark Breheny frees were a perfect start for Sligo in front of a crowd of 4,227.

Emlyn Mulligan got Leitrim off the mark with a point after six minutes, but after Brian Egan pointed, Murphy landed the first of his superb five when he hit the target from the left.

Leitrim struggled to contain Murphy and he added two more before Breheny’s first from play pushed Sligo 0-7 to 0-1 ahead after 17 minutes.

Ronan Kennedy responded with a free for Leitrim and Mulligan got another, but in between Sligo full-back Kevin McDonnell soloed forward to kick a magnificent effort from the right.

Donal Wrynn got Leitrim’s first point from play after 25 minutes to cut the gap to 0-8 to 0-4 and with wind advantage to come in the second-half, the travelling supporters began to hope.

However, Sligo had other ideas and Adrian Marren pointed from the right before Murphy struck two more splendid efforts, with a pointed free from Marren making it 0-12 to 0-4 at the break.

Leitrim had a glimmer of hope just before the break when Wyrnn pounced on a delivery from Mulligan but his fisted effort came back off the right post before being scrambled clear by a Sligo side who took an eight points advantage into the break.

Sligo stepped up a gear after the restart and Kyle Cawley soloed through from the left to shoot to the net after 49 minutes.

Leitrim never looked like coming back after that and they finished the game with 14 men when Gary Reynolds was black-carded in stoppage time with six subs on the field.

Darragh Cummins wrapped it up for Sligo in the closing stages with their second goal to seal an impressive victory.

Scorers for Sligo: N Murphy 0-5, M Breheny 0-4 (2fs), K Cawley 1-0, D Cummins 1-0, A Marren 0-3 (1f, 1’45), J Hynes 0-1, K O’Donnell 0-1, B Egan 0-1.

Scorers for Leitrim: E Mulligan 0-4 (4fs), N O’Donnell 0-2, D Wrynn 0-1, R Kennedy 0-1 (f), D Sweeney 0-1, C Gaffney 0-1.

Sligo: A Devaney; D Maye, K McDonnell, G O’Kelly-Lynch; Keelan Cawley, E Flanagan, Brendan Egan; J Hynes, A McIntyre; A Marren, M Breheny, N Ewing; Brian Egan, N Murphy, Kyle Cawley.

Subs: C Breheny for Hynes (47), P Clark for Brian Egan (51), L Henry for Maye (63), N Gaughan for O’Kelly-Lynch (65), C Nally for Kyle Cawley (67), D Cummins for Marren (69).

Leitrim: B Flynn; P Maguire, R Gallagher, K McHugh; S McWeeney, G Reynolds, T Mulvey; S Moran, P McGowan; C Gilheaney, E Mulligan (0-4f), K Conlan; R Kennedy, D Wrynn, J Rooney.

Subs: N Woods for Rooney (19), D Sweeney for McGowan (33), N O’Donnell for Gilheaney (34), A Croal for Gallagher (36), C Gaffney for Mulvey (51), R O’Rourke for Moran (60).

Referee: S Hurson (Tyrone).