Sligo got their promotion hopes back on track with a comfortable 18-point defeat of London at Markievicz Park.
First-half goals from Niall Murphy and Brian Egan sparked Sligo's surge, with Murphy also netting in the second-half for a personal haul of 2-05.
Each team finished with 14 players because of the second-half dismissals of Conor Griffin (Sligo) and Conal Gallagher (London), with each player picking up a second booking in separate incidents.
The Exiles came to Sligo placed second in the standings, with three wins from four games. They started with one Sligo native in their starting XV, Eoin Flanagan, and another two on the bench, Eunan Curran and James Hynes.
London’s talisman and team captain Liam Gavaghan has Sligo connections, too, with his dad, also called Liam, hailing from Aclare in south Sligo.
Sligo, looking to bounce back from back-to-back defeats against Tipperary and Cavan, brought Brian Egan into their starting team for the suspended David Quinn, with Pat Hughes unavailable and replaced by Mikey Gordon.
London, breeze-assisted for the first-half, opened the scoring with a fine point from Conal Gallagher.
Sligo began to assert themselves and this showed with their first goal in the ninth minute when Niall Murphy goaled after fine work from Alan Reilly.
Within a minute Sligo had a second goal – this time Brian Egan found the net from Keelan Cawley’s assist.
Liam Gavaghan kicked a superb point for London but Sligo continue to dominate. One of their best points of the first-half came from midfielder Sean Carrabine following a slick exchange of passes with Patrick O’Connor.
London threatened sporadically – there were goal opportunities for Fearghal McMahon and Thomas Lenihan – and Liam Gavaghan kicked another excellent point after London goalkeeper advanced outfield to help set up the score.
One of Sligo’s best forwards in that opening period was Alan Reilly, who scored 0-03.
Sligo, who were nine points up at the break, 2-08 to 0-05, had the advantage of the breeze for the second-half.
The home side extended their advantage to 11 points, 2-10 to 0-05, when a red card for midfielder Conor Griffin, who picked up a second yellow, gave London a glimmer of hope.
London, of course had overturned a big deficit when beating Carlow after a second-half red card for Carlow in that game.
There was no such comeback here, however, with Sligo maintaining their momentum.
London were then reduced to 14 players when Conor Gallagher picked up a second booking in the 56th minute.
Sean Carrabine, who kicked some impressive points throughout, delivered a superb pass for Niall Murphy, who netted Sligo’s third goal after 78 minutes.
London were denied a consolation goal in the closing stages when substitute Liam Gallagher’s goalbound effort was cleared off the line by Evan Lyons.
Sligo: Aidan Devaney, Mark Walsh, Evan Lyons, Paul McNamara, Nathan Mullen, Darragh Cummins (0-02), Paul Kilcoyne, Sean Carrabine (0-05, 1 '45’), Conor Griffin, Keelan Cawley (c), Patrick O’Connor, Mikey Gordon (0-01), Brian Egan (1-02, 1 ‘mark’), Niall Murphy (2-05, 2f), Alan Reilly (0-03)
Subs used: Luke Towey (0-1) for Nathan Mullen, 33; Donal Conlon for Brian Egan, 58; Conan Marren for Patrick O’Connor, 60; Ray Connolly for Alan Reilly, 63
London: Noel Maher (0-01, ‘45’), Conor O’Neill, Matt Moynihan (0-01), Nathan McElwaine, Ronan Sloan, Eoin Walsh, Eoin Flanagan, Evan Wynne, Liam Gavaghan (c) (0-03, 1f), Conal Gallagher (0-02), Fearghal McMahon (0-01) Matthew Walsh, Chris Farley (0-01, 1f), Stephen Dornan, Thomas Lenihan
Subs used: James Hynes for Thomas Lenihan, 39; Liam Gallagher for Conor O’Neill, 45; James Gallagher (0-1) for Chris Farley, 47; Henry Walsh for Fearghal McMahon, 53; Cahir Healy for Evan Wynne, 62
Referee: Thomas Murphy (Galway)
Elsewhere in Division 4, Wexford held on to beat neighbours Waterford at Chadwicks Wexford Park on a 0-15 to 0-14 scoreline.
The Yellowbellies raced into an early four-point lead with the help of two Mark Rossiter frees, and they had stretched the gap out to six with a quarter of an hour gone.
Darragh Corcoran's frees were keeping the scoreboard ticking over for the Déise, but the gap was still four at the break.
Waterford had the better of the third quarter, and with 10 minutes to go the game was level thanks to efforts to from Jason Curry, Dermot Ryan, Conor Murray, and Darragh Corcoran.
Ciaran Regan and Rossiter pushed Wexford ahead once more before Tom O'Connell pulled the deficit back to the minimum, but the visitors didn't have time to find the equaliser.
