ALLIANZ FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Division One
Galway 0-8 Roscommon 0-9
A LAST gasp point from Richard Hughes made it two league wins from two for newly promoted Roscommon at Pearse Stadium yesterday.
Galway, having opted to play with the breeze, led by two at the break, 0-5 to 0-3, and midway through the second-half last year’s All-Ireland finalists had opened the gap over their Connacht rivals to four.
However, the Rossies took heart to fire over four unanswered points to get themselves back on level terms. Then, four minutes into injury-time Hughes proved the hero as he stepped up to the mark to deliver the point that secured Roscommon’s first league win over Galway in 20 years.
Division Two
Limerick 1-11 Dublin 2-17
DUBLIN joined Derry and Meath on four points at the top of Division Two thanks to a comfortable win over Limerick at the Gaelic Grounds yesterday.
As the half-time whistle sounded, the Dubs were 13 points to the good, 2-12 to 0-5, with the full-forward line of Ross McGarry, Dean Rock and Con O’Callaghan accounting for 1-13 of that total.
Hugh Bourke gave Limerick a glimmer of hope shortly after the restart when he rounded David O’Hanlon and found the back of the net. However, a Killian Ryan black card shortly after snuffed out any Treaty revival.
Dublin began to go up the gears again after 18 scoreless minutes and further points from Rock, O’Callaghan and McGarry saw them stretch their lead back out to double figures, although a late flurry of Limerick points brought the deficit back down to nine.
Kildare 0-7 Cork 2-14
CORK bounced back from their opening day defeat to Meath with a resounding win over Kildare in St Conleth’s Park yesterday afternoon.
The Rebels kept the home side scoreless for the first 28 minutes of yesterday’s game, and a Sean Powter in the 15th minute set the tone for a close to perfect display from the visitors.
As well as setting up that Powter goal, Brian Hurley was among the points during that opening period and, by the time Jimmy Hyland registered a score for the Lilywhites, Cork already had 1-6 on the board.
The Rebels led 1-8 to 0-2 at the break and, when Kildare’s Alex Beirne saw red for lashing out at an opponent, the game was over as a contest. A Cathail O’Mahony goal deep in injury-time put the icing on the cake for the visitors.
Meath 4-8 Clare 0-16
MEATH blasted their way past Clare at Páirc Tailteann yesterday, with their four-goal tally proving the difference.
Colm O’Rourke’s men hit three of their goals inside the first 18 minutes in Navan, Donal Lenihan grabbing the first with a first time shot along the deck. Lenihan also claimed Meath’s second major soon after when he redirected a long Ronan Jones delivery to the back of the Clare net.
From the resulting kick-out, Jordan Morris won possession and punished ’keeper David Sexton by blasting low to the bottom right corner.
The Royals never relinquished the lead after that early blitz, despite Clare putting together two runs of five points without reply, and Jason Scully made sure of the win with the home side’s fourth goal of the day.
Division Three
Longford 0-9 Westmeath 4-16
LONGFORD’S David McGivney and Andrew Farrell were both given their marching orders as they succumbed to a rampant Westmeath at Pearse Park yesterday.
Things didn’t always look so bleak for Longford yesterday though, as approaching half-time they led by four thanks to some fine efforts from Dessie Reynolds.
However, points from Nigel Harte and Ronan O’Toole and a goal from Luke Loughlin helped swing the tie decisively in Westmeath’s favour early in the second-half.
Longford were to register a solitary point in a disastrous second-half as further goals from John Heslin and Lorcan Dolan underlined Westmeath’s dominance.
