Walsh resigns as Sligo manager

Sligo's forgettable Championship summer has ended with an All-Ireland first round qualifier defeat to Derry and the resignation of their manager Kevin Walsh.

Walsh, who won two All-Ireland titles as a player with Galway, presided over Sligo's shock Connacht Championship loss to London last month and decided to call it quits after they lost 0-15 to 0-8 to Derry in Dungiven tonight.

There were calls for Walsh to end his five-year managerial reign following the London game late last month, with Sligo legend Eamonn O'Hara using his role as a pundit on RTÉ's 'The Sunday Game' to criticise his former boss.

"I think he will (resign) and I think he should do the County Board a favour," insisted O'Hara, reacting to the disappointing 1-12 to 0-14 reversal in Ruislip.

"There are a lot of problems within the County Board from the top down. There is a lot of in-fighting and a lot of resignations at County Board level. We have a centre of excellence that is at a standstill. The keys should be handed over on June 1 and that is not going to happen.

"There are a lot of problems there and Kevin Walsh's results over the last two years have gone unnoticed because of this in-fighting.

"He hasn't been held accountable to this. We got to a Connacht final last year but we're papering over the cracks. There are players there that deserve better quality of training and management and I think going forward Kevin should make the right decision for the sake of Sligo football and not anybody else."

O'Hara was not included by Walsh in this year's Sligo panel and the Tourlestrane clubman reckoned that that decision, and other 'big calls', have backfired on the manager in the long run.

But the current Sligo panel showed their support for the Galway man by issuing a brief statement at the time. It read: "In light of recent comments in the national media, the players want to publicly assert their full confidence in Kevin Walsh and his management team going forward."

Walsh succeeded Tommy Jordan in November 2008 and guided Sligo to Allianz League Division 3 and 4 titles and back-to-back promotions in his first two seasons at the helm, while there was also Connacht and All-Ireland Junior Championship successes.

But the prized Nestor Cup, awarded to the Connacht senior champions, has eluded them - they lost the 2010 final to Roscommon by a point and were also runners-up to Mayo in last year's decider.

The Yeats men only won two of their seven games in Allianz League Division 3 earlier this year and their results in the Championship suggest that progress has stalled under the current regime.