PREVIEW: Limerick travel to Sligo hoping to seal final day promotion

On Sunday last, Billy Lee’s Limerick side missed out on promotion to Division 3 as they fell to a 1-13 to 1-10 defeat to Wexford in Mick Neville Park.

That result saw Wexford draw level on points with Limerick, with Wicklow’s heavy victory over Antrim also pushing them onto eight points at the summit of the table.

Now Limerick travel to Sligo knowing that a win will still be enough to qualify as Wexford and Wicklow meet on the final round.

Limerick struggled in the first half of their return to competitive football and were trailing 1-8 to 0-3 at the short whistle.

Limerck’s innaccuracy proved very costly as they missed each of their placed ball efforts while gifting Daithi Walters a goal at the other end.

The introduction of Killian Ryan, Sean McSweeney and Tommy Griffin injected life into the side with the latter duo combining for Limericks goal with Griffin flicking McSweeney’s shot into the net.

Three more Limerick scores on the bounce saw them reduce the deficit to two but Wexford’s response was immediate as they pushed themselves four clear again with a quickfire brace.

Limerick did bring the game to within a goal and almost drew level with the last play of the game as they scrambled the ball off the post but the ball would trickle wide to give Wexford the win.

A win would have sealed the League title as well as promotion for Lee’s side.

But, it will count for little if Limerick win on Sunday with promotion the number one priority for Lee and co at the outset of 2020.

Sligo come into the game with three wins and three losses from their six League games.

Their return to play saw them lose a thrilling encounter as they ended up on the wrong side of a 2-17 to 2-15 result.

Their promotion hopes have ended as a result of Waterford’s concession to Antrim.

The last time these sides met in the League was in 2016 when both were in Division 3.

Limerick’s 3-12 to 1-10 loss to the Connacht side was their penultimate at the grade with Sligo joining Limerick in the bottom tier this year after losing each of their games in 2019.

In 2015 they met in the opening round of the League with Limerick picking up a 0-14 to 1-9 win in Newcastle West.

Billy Lee has named the same starting XV that began in Mick Neville for the game.

Throw in on Saturday is 2PM.