Galway are back to back Connacht SFC winners.

They defeated Sligo today to claim their 48th title in history in what was a comfortable victory in the end, 2-20 to 0-12.

Sligo started the better with points from Pat Spillane Jnr and Darragh Cummins.

The Galway reply seemed slow at first, but Matthew Tierney's goal after nine minutes put them 1-2 to 0-3 up.

This settled Galway to kick start a spell where Sligo would just get one point in half an hour.

Tierney scored his second goal on 22 minutes, after getting past Sligo keeper Daniel Lyons.

Ian Burke was black carded just before the break to reduce Galway to 14, and they went in at the break 2-7 to 0-5 up.

Niall Murphy and Sean Carrabine added points for Sligo early in the second half before both sides turned to their bench for a change of personnel.

Patrick O'Connor was introduced to score for Sligo, while Tierney added Galway points along with subs Tomo Culhane and Cathal Sweeney.

Paul Kilcoyne got the last of the Sligo points before Tierney got his seventh point of the day to add to his two first half goals for a Player of the Match display.

 

Full time score from Hastings Insurance MacHale Park:

Galway 2-20 (26) Sligo 0-12

 

Both sides will have two weeks of recovery before their venture into the All Ireland series.

Galway are up against Tyrone in their first fixture.

For Sligo, they will look to overcome Kildare - the same opponent of their U20 side in next Saturday's All Ireland final.

Both games will be played on the weekend of May 20/21, with time and date TBC.