Alan Mulholland’s Galway footballers and Sligo, under Kevin Walsh, will face each other in the FBD League on Sunday in Enniscrone (2pm ).
It will be the first time the sides have met since Galway suffered last summer's disappointing championship defeat to the Yeat's men at Pearse Stadium. That is in the past now and consigned to the history books.
While it may only be the third weekend in January and the FBD League, both managers will want to see their sides produce a solid, positive and, ideally, a winning performance.
Galway are currently unbeaten in the FBD after playing two college sides, including last weekend’s 0-16 to 1-5 win over Sligo IT at Tuam.
Galway won easily by double scores in the end, mainly thanks to a lively performance by Claregalway's Danny Cummins who hit six points from corner forward.
However, after Peadar Seoighe's second-half goal had edged the Sligo students ahead early in the second, Mulholland had to bring in a few subs to steady the maroon ship.
The arrival of Paul Conroy and Shane Walsh added a bit of composure to Galway's efforts and the team increased its collective work-rate and standard of play, outscoring their opponents by 0-11 to 0-2 in the last 20 minutes.
Mulholland was pleased with the win.
"The first half was scrappy. We were two up at the break (0-5 to 0-3 ) and it wasn't pretty. Nevertheless when we went a point behind in the second half, the lads produced a very good response. On the whole we did well. We finished well," said Mulholland.
Praise for Cummins
It was a good afternoon's work for Danny Cummins who hit half a dozen points.
"Danny played well and he took on a leadership role which was good to see,” said Mulholland. “He is an ex-IT Sligo player so he had a thing or two to prove out there. But he did well."
"We have a lot of things to do, a lot to work on, but the players are showing a very positive attitude. We are trying to get the balance between defending and attacking, getting that balance right is very important.
“We hope to put in a big shift this Sunday. We are trying to build a team for the National League, and we are playing Derry in a few weeks [February 3], so every game is important from that perspective," he said.
In Enniscrone Sligo will look to the likes of Niall Murphy, Mark Breheny, Kenneth Sweeney and Brian Egan to provide sufficient scores to get a home win and it will be interesting to see how Galway's new-look fullback line deals with the challenge they pose.
Elsewhere in the FBD league last Sunday the results were as follows;
In Section A Sligo defeated NUIG 0-14-1-9, and in Section B, Leitrim defeated Mayo by 0-9 to 0-8. Roscommon were far too strong for GMIT, winning 1-20 to 1-4.
Galway: Manus Breathnach, Donal O' Neill, David Finnegan, Colin Forde, Conor Costello (0-1 ), David Reilly, Gary O' Donnell, Anthony O' Griofa, Niall Coleman (0-1 ), Michael Boyle, Mark Hehir (0-1, 1f ), Sean Denvir, Micheal Martin (0-4, 1f ), Sean Armstrong (0-2 ), Danny Cummins (0-6 ). Subs: Tomás Healy for Breathnach, Gary Sice for D. Reilly, Shane Walsh for Sean Denvir, Paul Conroy for A O' Griofa, Peadar Óg Ó Griofa (0-1 ) for D Cummins, Shane Maughan for M Martin
