There was a bizarre finish to Thursday night’s All-Ireland Masters football semi-final between Sligo and Donegal at the Yeats County’s GAA Centre of Excellence in Scarden.
The match finished level in near total darkness at the end of a shortened extra-time (three minutes each way) at 1-11 to 0-14.
With no floodlights available at the pitch being used for this game, it was deemed too dark to proceed with penalty kicks so the match goes to a replay.
It’s arguable that the light was already too poor at the end of normal time after Donegal’s Donnacha Gallagher, a former Sligo player himself back in the day, fired over an excellent equaliser deep into added time to bring his side level.
Sligo led by 1-6 to 0-6 at half-time thanks to a Christopher ‘Cizzie’ Kelly penalty just before the interval.
With daylight fading noticably in the second half, tempers became frayed with both sidelines unhappy about some of referee Declan O’Boyle’s decision-making.
The Yeats County were reduced to 14 players as the game entered the final quarter when Tourlestrane’s James Leonard received a second yellow card.
Gallagher’s late equaliser meant a draw game.
Then followed lengthy discussion on the pitch between both teams and match officials – before the referee took the curious decision to play a shortened extra-time comprising three minutes of football each way.
Sligo regained the lead in the first period of extra-time – but Gallagher found another score for Donegal in the second three-minute period to tie up the game again.
With players barely able to make each other out on the field because of the poor light, the decision was eventually taken to call a halt and go to a replay.
Listen back to Ocean FM Sport’s live coverage of the game here during Thursday night’s edition of ‘The Final Whistle’:
All-Ireland Masters football semi-final result
Sligo 1-11 Donegal 0-14 (after extra-time)
Tyrone (holders) v Dublin, Saturday 2pm