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You are > Home > Coming to terms with success
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Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Coming to terms with success
Roscommon are Connacht champions it is hard to believe it. In a fantastic Connacht final Roscommon held off a determined Sligo rally to win by the narrowest of margins in the end.
The foundations of this victory were laid in the first half when Roscommon played great football.
I don’t think Sligo expected Roscommon to be so good.
The attitude of the winners was very positive and they took the game to Sligo with a fine display of fluid, attacking football. Every player on the team worked his socks off as Roscommon dominated midfield and hoovered up most of the breaks around the middle third of the field. The players showed great composure as they took the game to Sligo.
I think all the hype in Sligo over the past few weeks got to the Sligo players.
One Sligo supporter even said to me that it was a pity that it would be such a one-sided final. Kevin Walsh warned during the week that there is no team better than Roscommon to carry the underdogs tag. Galway know all about that from 1998 and 2001.
The Sligo players must not have been listening because their attitude in the first-half was very complacent. They paid the price.
Roscommon came out of the blocks from the throw-in and showed a far greater hunger and will to win than Sligo. Roscommon won the midfield battle hands down. Michael Finneran was a revelation in the first-half. Some of his fielding reminded me of John Newton at his best. I am glad for Michael because I believe he is an excellent fielder but sometimes he lacks self-belief.
He was majestic at times on Sunday.
Such was the dominance of Finneran and Mannion that the two Sligo midfielders were taken off before the end. Danger man Mark Breheny was also taken off and it is a tribute to the Roscommon full-back line that Sligo’s danger man David Kelly was held scoreless.
The value of winning the breaking ball was shown in the first-half as Roscommon won most of the breaks around the middle third.
Cathal Cregg, David Keenan, David O’Gara, and David Casey all won a big share of the breaking ball. It was only when Sligo began to win the breaks in the second-half that they took over.
Sligo outscored Roscommon by 0-7 to 0-4 in the secondhalf. Only Donie Shine scored for Roscommon in that second period.
Every player on the team can look back on this game with pride. Geoffrey Claffey made a super save from Kelly at a vital stage in the second-half.
The full back line of Seánie McDermott, Peter Domican and Stephen Ormsby were outstanding.
David Casey took up where he left off against Leitrim. He was simply superb until he ran out of steam late in the second-half.
Seán Purcell and Cathal Dineen also had their moments. The aforementioned Finneran, in particular, and Mannion in the second-half saw off a series of Sligo combinations.
The half forwards Keenan, O’Gara and Cregg were outstanding in the first-half and worked hard throughout the second-half. Donie Shine was the worthy recipient of the ‘Man of the Match’ award.
The “best freetaker in the game” Eugene McGee called him. But it was more than frees he excelled at. He kicked some great points from play as well.
John Rogers caught one great ball and contributed handsomely until he was replaced. Kevin Higgins and Jonathon Dunning both played well when they came on. Ger Heneghan can be proud of his contribution as well.
Well done lads!
You have put a smile back on the face of Roscommon football again. Well done also to Fergal and his backroom team. The disappointing league campaign is now well and truly consigned to history.
1989 REVISITED
The ‘Terrace Teaser’ in ‘Goalpost’, the GAA section of the Irish Racing Post, asks the following question: “On the week that’s in it, which Roscommon player kicked the famous goal that wasn’t a goal at the end of the 1989 Connacht minor final? It caused consternation, and a replay took place. Clue: He went on to become a well known Roscommon senior.”
We in Roscommon don’t need a clue to answer that one, it was, of course, Shane Curran. I see that he was interviewed by Colm Keyes about it in Irish Independent during the week.
The bizarre ending to the recent Leinster final reminded me of that minor final. It was played in McHale Park, Castlebar, as a curtain raiser to the senior final between Mayo and Roscommon.
It all happened in the first minute of injury-time at the end of the second-half. Galway led Roscommon by 2-8 to 0-13 when the Roscommon centre half-forward Shane Curran was fouled as he bore down on the Galway goals.
Referee John Cosgrove awarded a penalty. Team captain Peadar Glennon placed the ball, stepped back a few steps and was beginning to take his run up to strike the ball when Curran raced from behind him and blasted the ball to the net, apparently as much to Glennon’s surprise as everyone else.
The scoreboard counted the goal, Roscommon were convinced they had won and some Galway players frantically hassled the referee all the way to his dressing-room door.
They too obviously believed that Roscommon were being awarded the game.
The Connacht Council presented the cup to the Roscommon captain and everybody believed that Roscommon had won.
It later transpired that the referee had disallowed the penalty because ther were two Roscommon players inside the 21 yards line when the penalty was taken and Galway were in fact the champions.
The referee explained afterwards that he had forgotten to tell the umpires to cross the flags to disallow the goal. He must obviously have forgotten to tell the Connacht Council as well because they presented Roscommon with the cup.
If the referee had disallowed the goal on the field of play it is strange that a group of angry Galway players followed his to his dressing room barking abuse into his ears. The Roscommon players were on their way home with the cup unaware of the raging controversy.
They were having their meal when an official from the Connacht Council came in and told them that Galway were the champions and he took the cup away from them. It was an insensitive thing to do to a group of minor players. Controversy raged for days and Roscommon even threatened to pull out of the senior replay against Mayo.
Roscommon officials were nettled by the injustice of it all. A tempestuous Connacht Council meeting discussed the game. Galway diffused the situation when they offered a replay to Roscommon.
The game was played in McHale Park, Castlebar, and Roscommon won by 211 to 0-15 so there was a feeling that justice was done after all.
I didn’t see the Leinster final live but The Sunday Game dealt extensively with the controversy. I felt very sorry for Louth. It was a dreadful way to lose a game. There should have been about three frees out to Louth. First of all, Joe Sheridan was in the small parallelogram before the ball came in.
Secondly, when Sheridan got the ball he wriggled his way past two defenders before throwing himself over the line. Then he threw up the ball and he swung a leg at it in an attempt to kick it. It was like a goal you would see in a Married v Singles game in a parish sports.
I was amazed that Martin Sludden didn’t consult the umpires. I understand that the umpires cannot call the referee’s attention to a foul. He must consult them.
There didn’t seem to be any consultation in this instance. He just seemed to instruct the umpire to raise the flag. It was a terrible blunder by the referee.
However, that didn’t justify a few louts attacking him after the game. I felt really sorry for him. I presume he has a wife and family. It was no joy for them watching what has been shown several times on television since. I am sure that no one feels as badly as he does about what happened. We are all only human and anyone can make a mistake.
The difference is that most of our mistakes are not made under the glare of television cameras in front of the whole country. Martin was man enough to admit he had made a mistake and that he shouldn’t have allowed the goal.
It wasn’t much consolation to Louth but at least he had the honesty to put up his hand and admit that a mistake was made. I hope he recovers from this and that he will get a chance to referee a big game in the future.
There was never a question of a replay. I don’t think it was fair to put the onus on the Meath players. Meath hadn’t won a Leinster title in nine years and the younger players on the team were as anxious to win a Leinster medal as the Louth players.
I admired J.P. Rooney’s attitude. The Louth cornerforward didn’t want a replay and he reminded us all of the tragedy in Donegal. Louth’s problems pale into insignificance when you think of the pain those families are going through.
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