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You are > Home > Roscommon get job done
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Thursday, June 03, 2010
Roscommon get job done
Roscommon got over the London hurdle in Ruislip on Sunday last, but the manner of the victory must have left the team management with many questions to ponder.
I wasn’t in Ruislip but Willie Hegarty’s commentary and Donie Shine’s analysis painted a picture of the game for me.
Roscommon played against a strong wind in the first-half and got the worst possible start when Mark O’Carroll was injured after only 24 seconds. Let’s hope that the St. Brigid’s player’s injury isn’t too serious.
A few things worried me about this performance.
It took Roscommon 14 minutes to register their first score. Even taking the strong wind into account, that is disappointing against a Division Four team.
London had drawn a superb save out of Geoffrey Claffey before Roscommon opened the scoring. Mayo or Galway would probably be five or six points up after 14 minutes. The winners only scored two points in the opening 20 minutes of the game.
Roscommon’s best period was the last quarter of the first-half. They led by 0-8 to 0-2 at half-time and it was confidently expected that they would coast home in the second-half when wind assisted.
The second-half was a big disappointment. Roscommon outscored London by only 0-6 to 0-4. London missed a penalty. Roscommon went two 12-minute periods in the second-half without registering a score.
If the Exiles had scored the first goal and the penalty, Roscommon might have been in trouble.
Once again Roscommon failed to score a goal against London. The Exiles created some goal chances in the second-half but didn’t take them.
A better forward line might have exploited the weaknesses in the Roscommon defence.
Chances were created at the other end but the forwards hadn’t the killer instinct to hit the London net. In fact I don’t remember the London goalkeeper having to make a significant save in the entire game.
Of Roscommon’s total of 0-14, Donie Shine scored 09. Of the remaining 0-5, midfielder Karol Mannion scored one point, centre half back Cathal Dineen scored another and substitute Jonathon Dunning scored a third. Ger Heneghan scored 0-2.
That means that four of the selected forwards failed to score in the entire game.
That is simply not good enough against opposition like London.
London took control in the vital midfield area in the second-half and that must be a big worry for the Roscommon management.
Maybe complacency set in after half-time, but if the London penalty had gone in it could have been a much tighter finish. Roscommon got the right result but the display left a lot to be desired.
That said, a win is a win, and Roscommon are now preparing for a Connacht semi-final joust with Leitrim in Hyde Park on June 20th.
There will hardly be many nights’ sleep lost in Leitrim after Roscommon’s display on Sunday. A major improvement is needed if Roscommon are to advance to the Connacht final.
I appreciate that it is never easy to beat London in Ruislip. I was with the Sligo team in 1998 and London looked likely winners by half-time in that game.
Sligo only pulled ahead in the last ten minutes and eventually won by 0-14 to 1-7.
Sligo v Mayo
I am really looking forward to the Sligo v Mayo game in Markievicz Park next Saturday.
The last time the teams met in the Sligo venue was in 2003 when Mayo won by 0-14 to 0-11. Very few players from that game survive for next Saturday’s clash.
For Mayo, only Aidan Higgins, Alan Dillon, Trevor and Conor Mortimer are available, while Sligo’s survivors are Noel McGuire, Eamonn O’Hara and Mark Breheny.
Sligo have a good record in the championship. In the Qualifiers they have beaten Tyrone, drawn with Armagh and went within a whisper of beating Kery last year. They have been promoted in two consecutive years from Division Four to Division Two.
They were the most impressive team in the recent league finals. They played brilliant football in the Division Three final against Antrim, scoring 0-19, all but two points of which were from play.
The Yeats County men have an outstanding full-back line in Charlie Harrison, Noel McGuire and Ross Donovan. The latter must be one of the finest corner-backs in the game.
Stephen Gilmartin and Tony Taylor form a solid midfield pairing, while Mark Breheny, David Kelly, Stephen Coen and former Mayo player Alan Costello are forwards who know where the posts are. Eamonn O’Hara still has a lot of football left in him.
Sligo always seem to play well in the wide open spaces of Croke Park. Mayo seem to play well anywhere except Croke Park. Kevin Walsh has worked wonders with this Sligo team.
Ironically, home advantage in Markievicz Park may be a disadvantage to Sligo. It is a tight pitch and Sligo’s style of football is better expressed in wide open spaces.
Another factor that might influence Sligo’s play is the burden of expectation.
Sligo followers tend to get carried away with one good display and that puts pressure on the players. It might be foolish to expect a repeat of the league final display on Saturday.
That was the league, this is the championship. Chalk and cheese! Mayo had a good league campaign but flopped badly in the final against Cork.
It will be interesting to see if the players have managed to erase that game out of their system. John O’Mahony, no doubt, will have worked on the players’ mental attitude.
It is a difficult game to call. Sligo went very close to beating Galway in the same venue last year. They will be hoping to go one better this year against Mayo.
I have a slight feeling that Mayo might just about shade it but it might take extra-time to decide the outcome. The winners play Galway in the semi-final on June 27th.
Rousing Rebels
Cork hurlers showed that league form has no bearing on the championship when they turned in a superb display to comprehensively beat a fancied Cork team in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday last.
In the league final against Galway a few weeks ago Cork looked flat and a few of the older players seemed to have passed their sell by date.
There was no appetite for the physical stuff as Galway swept them aside with power and skill. On Sunday last it was a different story.
There was a hunger in evidence that suggests that the Rebels will be hard to beat this year.
That hunger was matched with speed and skill that Tipperary had no answer to. Big Aisake Ó hAilpín caused all kinds of problems for the Tipperary full-back line.
I don’t know what is in the air in Cork but they certainly grow very tall men down by the Lee. Aisake stands at 6’7” and he was later joined in the forward line by Michael Cussen who, if anything, must be even taller.
The Tipperary backs must have thought that they were standing behind a pine tree as ball after ball rained down on their goalmouth. Donal Óg Cusack was back to his brilliant best in goals.
New full-back Eoin Cadogan turned in a ‘Man of the Match’ performance, while the three half-backs John Gardiner, Ronan Curran and Seán Óg Ó hAilpín were superb.
Cathal Naughton seems to have found his true position in midfield, while the O’Connor twins, Niall McCarthy and Pat Horgan were only two eager to feed off the possession won by Aisake.
It was a disappointing day for Tipperary. Many felt that this would be their year after turning in such a promising performance in last year’s All-Ireland final.
Meanwhile I hear that the Cats are stretching themselves and purring down by the Nore. It should be an interesting summer on the hurling fields.
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