'Borderline dangerous' Markievicz Park needed to be shut down, insists Murphy

Niall Murphy feels that Sligo, beaten after extra-time in a Tailteann Cup semi-final in 2024, are generally making strong progress in what is Tony McEntee's fifth season in charge.

Niall Murphy of Sligo pictured with the Tailteann Cup. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Sligo captain Niall Murphy says their Markievicz Park base had become "borderline dangerous" and needed to be shut down.

The Yeats County will begin their Tailteann Cup group campaign on Sunday at home to Tipperary.

But Markievicz Park is unavailable due to an overhaul of the pitch so the game will be staged in Tubbercurry, a first for the Sligo senior team.

Sligo GAA chiefs confirmed that the Markievicz Park pitch was in an "unstable condition" due to the "predominance of meadowgrass", requiring a "significant regeneration of the playing surface".

Work has already begun on the ground which will be out of commission for the rest of the year and may not be available again until next summer.

"I don't know if you've seen the pitch, it's in bad shape," said Sligo attacker Murphy. "It's been brutal now probably for the guts of six to nine months. Even in the club campaign it was bad so it was nearly borderline dangerous the way it was, cutting up.

"We had tried to play our Tailteann Cup game there but I think there was a bit of a push on from the county board, that if we were to delay it (the pitch work) that it could feed into next year's Connacht championship. If you had a home game then, you might have to give that up as well.

"It was kind of a give up the Tailteann Cup game or give up a Connacht championship game next year. So I think they just went ahead and said, 'Let's get it done and try to get it ready for even the end of the league next year, for the Championship next year'. It's disappointing to be out of there, no doubt about it, but it is what it is."

It's a boost to Tipp's chances of scoring a significant Round 1 win over a side that played a division ahead of them in the National League. Sligo also pushed Mayo to within three points in their Connacht quarter-final encounter.

Murphy feels that Sligo, beaten after extra-time in a Tailteann Cup semi-final in 2024, are generally making strong progress in what is Tony McEntee's fifth season in charge.

"We've brought Galway and Mayo down into the last couple of minutes in Championship games over the last two years, so there's definitely progress there," said Murphy. "Definitely there was disappointment at not getting out of Division 3. Definitely since he came in we're a different team in my opinion anyway. We're comfortable playing any team whereas when he first came in, we were light years away from the likes of Mayo, Galway, Roscommon."