Sligo manager, Tony McEntee has said some of his side seemed to be "star-struck," particularly in the first half of their one-sided defeat to Mayo at Markievicz Park.
Mayo ran out easy winners on the opening day of the Connacht football championship with the score ending 0-12 to 3-23 in Mayo's favour.
McEntee praised Mayo for their aggression and admitted they were fully deserving of the win, however, he questioned Sligo's defensive quality, citing the goals conceded in the first half as an example of their deficiencies at the back.
Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile"Mayo were aggressive, strong and very powerful," McEntee told Midwest Radio after the final whistle.
"In that first half, if you combine that with the difficulties we had. We were all over the place in the defence.
"I think that we were a wee bit star-struck in parts of the game and then the errors, which were obvious in relation to the goals, in particular in the first half.
"I think that when you combine that together then we had quite a magic mix that made Mayo look very impressive."
McEntee was encouraged by an improved performance from the Sligo players in the second period, however, he called on the team to show more hunger moving forward in order to close the gap on other teams in the Connacht championship.
Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile"Impressed is a wee bit over the top in this case," McEntee said of Sligo's second-half showing.
"I would say that I was more content in that we were at least controlled. We did not win the second half either but at least we were more controlled in our performance. We were a little less scattered and less disorganised than in the first half.
"People saying 'it is difficult for Sligo in division four, they are put out early and all the rest.' The reality is they [the team] need to do more work and they need to put more effort in over the winter.
"They need to improve on their speed and conditioning, they need to give themselves a chance to be in a better position.
"We maybe have not done that this year and we now have a platform to allow us to at least look at it or at least develop that for next year because we can accept that Sligo are never going to beat Mayo in a Connacht championship, the two teams are too far apart, or we can actually go and do something about it.
"That is the challenge that we need to set ourselves."
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