FINGAL travelled to Markievicz Park, Sligo, on Sunday afternoon and a good second-half performance resulted in an eight-point victory to give Dublin hurling a second win in the NHL for the day.

However, their performance in the first half gave no indication of such a clearcut result. Failing to develop any momentum they could never impose themselves on the home team, while their discipline also let them down in conceding thirteen frees in the first thirty five minutes.

Sligo opened the scoring with a pointed free from Colin Herrity in the third minute but two Martin Ormonde points pushed Fingal a point clear after ten minutes. The game then descended into a very stop-start affair with both sides being guilty of errors and sloppy play.

In the last ten minutes of the half Fingal pushed on with two frees from Ormonde and a Paul McAllister point, but the concession of some cheap frees gave Sligo a brace of points from which Kilkenny native Herity converted.

A slender one point lead, 0-5 to 04, was probably a fair reflection of the disappointing fare served up by both teams in the first period.

A refocused Fingal squad took the field for the second thirty-five. Although conceding another free to Herity to level the game, the switch of McAllister to midfield was generating more ball for the Fingal front six.

They hit a rich vein of form with five unanswered points to lead by double scores at the three-quarter mark. The consistent Ormonde added two of these points, which were complemented by good scores from Colm Foley, Emmet McCabe and McAllister.

Sligo then got their first score from play with a good point from corner forward Mark Gordon, before another Herity brace reduced the deficit to three.

The major incident of the game arrived in the 26th minute of the half when Fingal substitute Eanna Slattery played a great 40-metre cross-field pass to fellow substitute Brian McCarthy who offloaded to Dara de Burca, and with a first time strike he found the Sligo net.

Despite a reply from Herity courtesy of another pointed free, the momentum was with Fingal and they finished out the game impressively with points from Ormonde (3) and McAllister.

Fingal are out again in the refixed game against Wicklow in Swords on Saturday at 2.30pm. If they are to overcome a Garden County trying to bounce straight back up to Division 3A the Fingal lads will have to produce an effort like their second-half display on Sunday for the full seventy next weekend.

Best for the Fingallians were the youthful duo of Niall Ring and Michael Cussen in defence, the hardworking Ross McGarry at midfield, and Colm Foley and Paul McAllister in attack in the second half.

However, the most impressive performer was Ormonde who supplemented his excellent free-taking with four great points from play.

SLIGO: M Kearney, J Kelly, W Gill, J Kenny; M Gilmartin, M Burke, R Cox, L Reidy, C Brennan, V O'Hora, C Herrity 0-8, D Burke, M Gordon 0-1, C O'Mahoney, J Bannerton 0-1. Subs: D O'Brien, N Cadden, A Cawley.

FINGAL: W Burke, P Coyne, D Markey, N Ring; M Cussen, D Vaughan, B Powell, R McGarry, D De Burca 1-0, C Foley 0-1, M Ormonde 0-9, P McAllister 0-3, C O'Mahoney, P Daly, E McCabe 0-2. Subs: B McCarthy, E Cullen, E Slattery.

REFEREE: Jim O'Rourke (Monaghan).