Connacht SFC quarter-final
Mayo 0-10 Roscommon 2-8
HOT on the heels of New York’s groundbreaking win over Leitrim on Saturday night, Roscommon injected yet more life into the provincial championships when they ambushed Mayo at MacHale Park yesterday, strangling the life out of their opponents in the first half before eventually kicking on by outscoring their hosts by 0-5 to 0-2 in the last 15 minutes of a tense, almost peculiar Connacht championship quarter-final.
“You have to enjoy this, I don’t know why lads are running down the competition, it’s the Connacht championship!” declared Rossie manager Davy Burke, who felt that his team’s strong showing in the Allianz League wasn’t given enough respect in the lead-up to this fixture.
Burke said that Roscommon “were a bit disrespected during the week. We finished third in Division One and didn’t matter at all by all accounts and our defensive record didn’t matter, nothing mattered.
“We were the second lowest conceding team in the League but that just got forgotten about,” he said.
Mayo certainly learned all about it yesterday, as Roscommon completely dictated the terms of engagement.
When the two sides met at Dr Hyde Park in the League, Mayo scorched the Rossies at midfield, and burst out of the blocks to lead by 0-7 to 0-1 with 15 minutes gone.
Here, despite Mayo playing with the aid of a strong breeze, Roscommon’s rock-solid defending restricted them to just a solitary point in the opening 25 minutes.
There was no small amount of cuteness attached to their showing too, as they milked the clock with slow, possession football and maximising stoppages.
Luck was on Roscommon’s side to a certain extent too, most notably when Stephen Coen’s shot cannoned off the crossbar and hammered into the ground about a foot short of the goal-line.
A good position for Roscommon turned into a great position when Conor Loftus crashed into the back of David Murray in a goalmouth scramble in the 25th minute, conceding a penalty which Enda Smith coolly placed into the bottom right-hand corner, making it 1-2 to 0-1.
Mayo finally rallied a little after this, with Paddy Durcan’s point, sandwiched in between two long-range Colm Reape kicks, cancelling out the goal.
They were left with a mountain to climb again, however, when Donie Smith pounced on a breaking ball and volleyed it to the net just before half-time.
The third quarter saw Mayo produce their best spell of football, scoring four of the next five points. Errant shooting at the bacon factory end didn’t help Roscommon’s cause as they shot four of their six wides in this quarter, while good, hard-earned scores from Aidan O’Shea, Matthew Ruane and Tommy Conroy reduced the gap to a single point.
However they always had to work incredibly hard to get inside scoring range, which was no more than 30 metres out.
When Roscommon came up with a number of big turnovers, they were able to strike on the break through Diarmuid Murtagh, Conor Cox and Enda Smith to clinch a sensational win, and set up a mouth-watering semi-final clash with Galway Dr Hyde Park.
“We will take a little time out now and regroup, the season is only in its’ infancy” said Kevin McStay, who shut down suggestions that the seven-day turnaround or a couple of controversial refereeing decisions had anything to do with the result.
“We went into this morning as number three seeds and both teams leave as number three seeds” said the former Roscommon manager and RTE pundit.
“Other than the parochial rivalry between the two teams and furthering your Connacht championship ambitions, other than that, nobody died. There is no end to anyone’s season, we get back up on the horse and go again” said the Mayo boss.
MATCH STATS
Mayo C Reape (0-2, 0-1f, 0-1 45);
J Coyne, S Coen, D McHugh (0-1);
E McLaughlin, C Loftus, P Durcan
(0-1); D O’Connor, J Flynn;
F McDonagh, J Carney, M Ruane (0-1); A O’Shea (0-1), R O’Donoghue (0-2f), T Conroy (0-1) Subs D McHale for McDonagh (51), C O’Connor (0-1) for McHale (52), C McStay for Flynn (61), J Doherty for McLaughlin (61), McHale for Ruane (70)
Yellow card O’Shea (68)
Roscommon C Carroll; D Murray,
B Stack, C Daly; N Daly,
E McCormack, C Hussey; K Doyle,
E Smith (1-1, 1-0 pen); C Lennon,
D Ruane, C Murtagh; D Smith (1-0), D Murtagh (0-6, 0-4f), B O’Carroll Subs C McKeon for Lennon (52),
C Cox (0-1) for D Smith (59),
R Hughes for N Daly (66), N Kilroy for Ruane (70), C Connolly for O’Carroll (70+1)
Yellow cards C Daly (59), Cox (68), Ruane (70)
Black card D Murtagh (70+2)
Referee N Mooney (Cavan)
