GALWAY MANAGER ALAN MULHOLLAND has named an unchanged starting XV for Saturday’s Connacht SFC semi-final against Sligo.
The Tribesmen impressed in cruising to a 3-15 to 0-10 win in their championship opener against Roscommon last month and with no major injury concerns to worry about, Mulholland has stuck with the same winning formula.
That means that Sean Armstrong is again preferred to Michael Meehan who made his championship return in the quarter-final, scoring two points and setting up a goal after his introduction as a second-half substitute.
Sligo duo Eamonn O’Hara and David Kelly have both lost their races to be fit for Saturday evening’s clash in Pearse Park.
Both players sat out Sligo’s win in New York last month, O’Hara with a knee injury and Kelly with an ankle problem, but manager Kevin Walsh hoped that they would recover in time to feature this weekend.
Walsh makes two changes from the side which beat New York with Johnny Martyn and Eugene Mullen coming in for Noel McGuire and Tony Taylor.
Galway: Adrian Faherty; Kieran McGrath, Finian Hanley, Keith Kelly; Garreth Bradshaw, Johnny Duane, Gary O’Donnell; Joe Bergin, Greg Higgins; Gary Sice, Damien Burke, Thomas Flynn; Sean Armstrong, Paul Conroy, Mark Hehir.
Sligo: Philip Greene; Neil Ewing, Johnny Martyn, Ross Donovan (c); Charles Harrison, Mark Quinn, Paul McGovern; Shane McManus, Eugene Mullen; Brendan Egan, Pat Hughes, Alan Costello; Stephen Coen, Adrian Marren, Mark Breheny.
Would Sligo beating Galway be a shock? Galway are very overrated beat a poor Rossie team on a bad day. Galway are lucky it’s on in pearse stadium