Cork ladies' firepower proves too much for Roscommon
Aisling Hanly grabbed Roscommon's first goal against Cork at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday afternoon.
Roscommon made a decent fist of things, but they found the shark-infested waters of SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh too hot to handle on Saturday afternoon.
This match was never going to define the visitors' league fate in Division Two with more winnable games against Tipperary and Westmeath to come, and while Roscommon were brave and courageous, they just couldn't handle Cork's powerful running game.
The dye was cast after only 20 seconds when Cork full-forward Elizabeth Coppinger palmed the ball beyond Helena Cummins, and when the home side went 1-2 to 0-0 ahead after only five minutes, Finbar Egan's side looked set for a long afternoon.
But Aisling Hanly's well-taken goal into the Blackrock end of the ground stemmed the bleeding.
Cork looked likely to score every time they ran at the Roscommon defence, and a second goal from Emma Cleary's ninth minute penalty, which Cummins got a hand to, gave Cork further encouragement.
Roscommon lost Orla O'Neill to injury, which held up the game for over ten minutes, but they were right back in the game when Laura Mannion's effort from distance wasn't held by Cork goalkeeper Sarah Murphy and dropped into the net.
As the game ticked into a prolonged period of injury time, Roscommon were only a couple of points behind, but two Cork goals during that lengthy additional time from Cleary and Coppinger handed the Rebelettes a 4-6 to 2-5 advantage.
Roscommon continued to battle bravely but Cork, led by Laura O'Mahony, Coppinger and Katie Quirke, continued to keep the scoreboard ticking over, while Helena Cummins made a number of outstanding saves for the underdogs.
Ella Thompson, Laura Mannion and Marian Nolan hit the pick of the second-half points from a Roscommon perspective, but a raft of substitutions by both sides took any remaining fluency out of the game.
In the end, Roscommon suffered a 14-point defeat, but they'll still feel confident of getting the points they'll need from their remaining two games.
ROSCOMMON: H. Cummins; O. O’Neill, E. Irwin, R. Brady; M. McKeon, S. Wynne, R. Lennon; A. Curran; L. O’Rourke; N. Watson, L. Mannion, S. McGuinness; A. Hanly, E. Thompson, C. Lennon. Subs used: N. Feeney for O’Neill (24 mins), S. Timon for Feeney (34 mins), C. Cregg for McGuinness (49 mins), R. Lennon for C. Lennon (49 mins), A. Malone for Watson (41 mins), M. Nolan for Hanly (46 mins), M. Kelly for Brady (48 mins), A. O’Meara for O’Rourke (51 mins), L. Shanagher for Lennon (54 mins).
