Sligo selector Noel McGuire says that their escape from New York last year will stand to them in tomorrow’s Connacht semi-final.
On an extremely hectic weekend of inter-county activity, there’s little doubt as to what the most novel fixture is as the exiles look to surf the momentum from their historic penalty shootout win over Leitrim and reach a provincial final for the first time.
When the two sides met in the Bronx last year, they were level in the closing minutes before Sligo kicked the last four points for a 1-16 to 0-15 victory and McGuire notes how New York have retained the bulk of that team and added some quality to it in the meantime.
“The fact that we were in New York last year, that's going to be an advantage to us,” he said.
“We've played against a lot of these guys before, they've added a few players to their team. There is expectation but I think this group has matured a lot over the last few years.
“A lot of these guys are in their mid 20s, have a lot of football played at this level and have really come into themselves. That expectation is something that they have dealt with over the last few weeks and believe they will be able to deal with it again this weekend.
“We're in the right headspace, definitely.”
McGuire admits that facing a New York side liberated by a long-awaited Championship win is a “very dangerous” prospect.
He added: “Looking at their performance in the Leitrim game, even though it was on that (astroturf) surface, but I don’t think that makes a whole lot of difference.
“They had the experience of travelling over for the Tailteann Cup last year as well so this is not entirely new to them, so it is an advantage to them in that regard that they have the experience of travelling last year, playing on a grass surface with the majority of the same squad of players again.
“We obviously have competitive games under our belt but I am sure they had a lot of work done to take out Leitrim and they have a couple of weeks now to target us.
“They will have a lot of data on us over the last number of games and have a lot more information on us than we would have on them.”
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