Embracing the road to redemption

The silence in the dressing room was deafening. How had it come to this?

A 22-point humiliation against Leitrim in a provincial final was a train that Ella Thompson and her Roscommon team-mates didn’t see coming down the tracks.

As ashen-faced players shook their heads in disbelief, it was hard to see how the wreckage from such a devastating loss could be salvaged.

But the great thing about sport is that it gives you another chance. There’s always another day, and the wheel will have turned full circle in just eight weeks when Roscommon return to the scene of that unexplained hammering in Carrick-on-Shannon for Sunday’s TG4 All-Ireland LGFA intermediate championship quarter-final against their hosts (throw-in is at 2 p.m.).

To Roscommon’s credit, they’ve managed to turn things around when — let’s be honest — nobody expected them to.

A defiant performance against Cavan — albeit ended in a three-point loss — was followed by a more confident showing in front of goal against Down.

That 2-13 to 1-12 triumph on Sunday week last put Roscommon back on the horse, propelling them into the knockout stages of the championship.

And yet, if things had worked out differently, Ella Thompson mightn’t have been involved in Roscommon’s salvage mission. The 22-year-old defender from St. Croan’s was meant to be travelling this season following her fourth, and final, year of primary school teaching in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.

But her plans changed, and when the call from Finbar Egan came, she was more than happy to immerse herself inside the intercounty bubble for a fourth successive season.

“My final year in college was obviously a tough year, so I wanted to go travelling for the summer. But my plans changed, and I was more than happy to come back into the county set-up. Finbar got on to me at the right time when I didn’t know what to do,” she revealed.

When Thompson returned, she admitted that the team “weren’t in a great spot”. Training had been going well, but hard work wasn’t reflected in terms of results.

There was an outside chance of promotion when Louth came to the Hyde in the penultimate round of the Division Three League, but the Wee County departed with the spoils, leaving Roscommon outside the top two.

The focus subsequently changed to championship mode. Having been involved in two relegation battles and just one quarter-final over the previous three seasons, there was a determination within the group to push on, despite the league disappointment.

From a personal perspective, Thompson challenged herself to get up to speed quickly. She felt that the team were humming along nicely until they were pulverised by Sunday’s opponents in the provincial final on May 3rd.

So, what went wrong?

“That’s a question we’ve asked ourselves and, to be honest, we don’t really know. Nothing went our way, nothing went right. We just couldn’t get a hold of the game. Leitrim came at us at the start and completely dominated. We just couldn’t match their level.

“The game wasn’t a reflection on us as a team. Nobody goes out to lose a match, especially a Connacht final by 22 points to your neighbours who we’ve played so often in the last few years. It’s always a 50/50 game, a tough, tight game. So we weren’t expecting that.

“The dressing room afterwards was a tough place to be. Spirits were very low. To be honest, we couldn’t believe what had just happened. We just gathered afterwards and vowed that we would never feel like that again.

“Obviously, we had to look at things and go back to the drawing board. We needed to fix something, but it wasn’t easy. You begin to doubt yourselves. Are you good enough? But we used the loss as motivation to push forward, to try and become a better team,” she explained.

The proof has been in the pudding. That narrow loss against Cavan was followed by the team’s best performance of the season — that four-point victory on Thompson’s home pitch in Enfield to ensure that Roscommon qualified for the knockout stages.

“Since the Connacht final, we have gone from strength to strength. Training and morale have never been better. We didn’t sit around feeling too sorry for ourselves.

“We were raring to go for the Cavan game. We wanted to show everyone that we were better. Training and challenge games had gone well. We got a performance up there. Okay, we lost, which wasn’t ideal, but there were a lot of positives to take out of the game.

“We subsequently worked on more things, and we brought that into the Down game. Cavan showed us that we were good enough to compete at this level and push on in the competition. We definitely believed in ourselves more.

“We have improved significantly as a team. Now we really believe that we’re good enough to put it up to Leitrim the next day,” she vowed.

Since returning to these shores, Thompson has been subbing part-time in schools around Castlerea and Roscommon Town, and hopes to land a full-time position in September.

“I’ve always wanted to work with kids. The four years in college absolutely flew, so it’s amazing to think that I’m finished and that I might have my own classroom in a few months,” she outlined.

She came through the underage ranks, winning a few Connacht B titles. Understandably, her dynamism and energy from wing-back are assets any team would love to have, and it was no surprise that former manager, Ollie Lennon, called her into the intermediate set-up when she had finished at minor level.

But the craving to make an impact on the business end of the championship has never been greater, and Thompson feels that the stars might be aligning for the team at just the right time, aided by the return of some key players.

“We’re a stronger, fitter side now. Ria (Lennon) has come into team since the Connacht final. I’ve more games under me. Aisling Feely has come into form.

“Laura (Fleming) coming back into the team has been such a boost. I’ve been playing with Laura since I came into the set-up. She’s just such an ambassador for Roscommon LGFA. Just having her back around the place has been such a boost to morale. She drives standards, and we were more than happy to welcome her back in.

“In two of my three seasons involved, we’ve been in relegation play-offs. That’s not a reward for the hard work we’ve put in. We believe that we’re more than capable of getting to a semi-final, and maybe even further.

“Sunday is part of that journey — a chance to redeem ourselves. That Connacht final wasn’t a reflection on us as a team, and the amount of work we’ve put in.

“But we could only have played Clare, Westmeath or Leitrim, so it really didn’t matter who we got in the (quarter-final) draw. It’s a chance to show everyone in Roscommon what we’re really about and what we’re capable of,” she concluded.

If Ella Thompson gets motoring, Roscommon can set the record straight.