Sligo football manager Mickey Moran yesterday avoided any over-reaction to his team's shock defeat of Dublin in Sunday's Group C National Football League. "It's only one match but I would have been disappointed had we not got something out of it. Maybe a draw would have been a fairer result," he said.

Moran was almost as pleasantly surprised with the attendance at Markievicz Park as he was with the result. He reckoned the crowd to be between 4,000 and 5,000. "Last year we were getting about 400 people at a league game."

The Limavady school teacher sees the win as an uplifting result for the county but says: "there are six matches to go. The one I am looking to is against London in the first round of the championship next summer. For the moment, the league is where we are at and we intend to learn from the great opportunity of playing some of the best teams around in our group.

"What would be a better way to start the league than with a home match against Dublin," he observes. "Their supporters made it a colourful occasion. It was a great match on a summer-like day. It was like championship time.

"I was pleased that the support play was still there since last year," he added. "Psychologically," says Moran, "it was nice to win the first match after our defeat in the Connacht final. I am delighted for the boys. Things hadn't been going particularly well for us because of the demands on players for club and colleges fixtures. Our panel is spread throughout Ireland. I can't get them all together at training at any one time."

Colm O'Rourke has been appointed manager of the Meath minor football team. His appointment was ratified by the Meath Minor Football Board last night and he succeeds Paddy Carr who held the post for the past three years.

This is O'Rourke's first venture into inter-county coaching. He has coached at school and club level, guiding St Patrick's, Navan to a Leinster Colleges senior title and helping the Dunshaughlin club to an intermediate championship victory.