Everybody loves Raymond as Sligo seal historic title victory

HURLING was in short supply on a football weekend at Croke Park but the brilliance of Keith Raymond did the small game’s stock no harm as Sligo claimed Nicky Rackard Cup honours.

Full-forward Raymond hit a brilliant 1-8, all from play, with some truly stunning scores worthy of a much higher level than the third tier of hurling.

His 17th-minute goal pulled Sligo back to within a single score of Louth who burst out of the traps and led 1-3 to 0-1 after just eight minutes courtesy of Sean Conroy’s goal.

Once in the lead Sligo turned the screw on Louth who now become the first side in the competition’s history to lose two deciders following their 2005 defeat to London.

By half-time the Yeats County had opened up a seven-point lead with a 2-12 to 2-5 advantage and they stretched the gap to nine by full-time with four Raymond scores helping to offset 1-3 from Louth’s top scorer Diarmuid Murphy — 1-6 overall — after the restart.

Afterwards Sligo’s captain quickly corrected himself after revealing his delight to the assembled crowd at being able to lift the McCarthy Cup aloft.

The truth is that for all their good work here they haven’t even gained Ring Cup status yet, with a promotion/relegation decider next week required against Roscommon to settle that.

“It’s something of a local derby against Roscommon so we’ll try to keep the boys focused on that this week,” said Sligo manager Michael Galvin.

“It really is (a more important game than the Rackard Cup final) because you want the team to progress and that means getting into the Christy Ring Cup.

“Hopefully we can beat Roscommon because I think we showed today this team is well capable of competing at a higher level. That’s our goal.”

SLIGO: C Brennan; F Coyne, W Gill, R Cox; D Clarke, M Burke (0-1), L Reidy; J Mullins, D Collery; M Gilmartin (0-1), D Burke (0-2), P Severs (1-4; 4f); J Bannerton (1-1), K Raymond (1-8), L Cadden (0-1).

Subs: C Herity for Cadden 48, M Shelley (0-1) for Bannerton 59, C O’Mahony for Gilmartin 66.

LOUTH: S Smith; C Kerrigan, T Teefy, B Hassett; D Callan (0-2), A Carter (0-1; 1f), J Carter; T Hillard, S Kerrigan; S Fennell, R Byrne (1-0), G Smith (0-1); S Conroy (1-0), S Callan, D Murphy (1-6; 4f, 2 65).

Subs: M Kirwan for Teefy 31, D Dunne for Smith & E McCarthy for S Kerrigan h/t, C Connolly for Fennell 41, P Dunne for Conroy 66.

Referee: S Whelan (Wexford).