Fresh goal gives minor footballers focus for ‘Wee’ challenge

Shane Moran wants his side to join an elite group of Roscommon minor teams this evening (Saturday).

The Roscommon manager points out that only three minor football teams from the county have won games in the All-Ireland Series since 1951, and the opportunity to change that statistic has focused minds in the aftermath of the team’s recent provincial success ahead of this evening’s All-Ireland quarter-final against defeated Leinster finalists, Louth, in Kingspan Breffni at 7 p.m..

“Connacht minor titles aren’t won very often in Roscommon. When you win them, they do give you great confidence.

“We took a few days off after the final to let the lads recharge the batteries. Training has been really good since. We’ve had challenge games, we’ve just put a lot of effort into focusing on the All-Ireland Series. We’ve parked winning a Connacht title," he highlighted.

“One stat that we’ve managed to dig out is that only three Roscommon minor teams have won a game in the All-Ireland Series since 1951. We want to be the fourth team. It’s a huge focus for the lads.

Louth were forced to succumb to a late Offaly surge that procured the Faithful County’s first Leinster minor football championship success since 1989. Despite that loss, Moran is expecting a massive Louth challenge next weekend.

“They’re a really good team. They’re managed by Johnny Clerkin. Gavin Devlin from Tyrone, who was brought in by Mickey Harte at senior level, is involved. Former Armagh goalkeeper, Paul Hearty, is there. A lot of time and energy have gone into them since they were 14 or 15 years old.

“What we do know is that they’re a hugely physical team. They’ve big men in the middle of the field — McQuillan and Maguire. Tom Maguire is around 6’ 5, very good in the air. Cillian McQuillan is a really good two-point kicker, a very athletic player who gives them a huge platform around the middle.

“Connell Kelly is a huge talent. He scored 0-9 in the Leinster final, 0-11 in the semi-final against Dublin. If we foul, he’ll kick two-pointers from the ground all day long.

“They’ve leadership all over the field — Andrew O’Reilly at 11, captain Tadhg Devaney at 6, another big leader for them.

“Louth probably expected to win the Leinster final. They were edged out by a really spirited Offaly team. They were in control for large parts of that game and were probably unlucky not to come out the right side.

“But if you’re beating Dublin in a Leinster semi-final by 12 points, you’re a really good team. We’ll give them the respect they deserve and hope that our guys can put in a good performance,” explained the manager.

Enda Browne will miss Saturday evening’s encounter because of a broken collar bone. Apart from the Pádraig Pearses defender’s absence, Roscommon have a full panel to pick from.

While Mayo asked hard questions in the Connacht final, Moran dismisses the notion that his side didn’t play to their potential in the provincial decider in Castlebar.

“Mayo improved greatly, that was down to the way they played. We beat them by nine point in the round robin, so we knew that there was going to be a kick in them.

“Any time you beat Mayo by nine points, you know they’re going to respond. You could say that things didn’t work out as well for us but I would say that a lot of our marquee players were really well-marshalled in the Connacht final.

“Other players stood up to the plate. John Price ended up as Man of the Match. So while you could say that we weren’t as good as in some of the games in the round robin, we still dug in deep.

“We pride ourselves in our workrate, and it was a turnover that got what turned out to be the winning goal for us. Dara (Curran) finished it, but that high pressing from our forwards got the ball back at a time when our backs were to the wall.

“It doesn’t matter how you win them. A lot of the time, it’s about grinding these results out. It will be the same against Louth,” he predicted.

Given that teams in Connacht know each other so well, the chance to build a fresh rivalry against a team like Louth is being embraced by all concerned. In that regard, Moran is encouraging the Roscommon public to get behind his team in huge numbers on Saturday evening.

“We just hope that the lads can go out and express themselves. Connacht finals are tense affairs. Only one team comes out with the trophy. Now it’s a case of let’s go out there and perform, and see how we get on.

“In that Connacht final, the support we had was outstanding. The roar of the crowd behind me in the stand when Dean Casey kicked that two-pointer to bring us back into the game will stay with me for a long time. The noise in the last five minutes definitely played a big role in getting us over the line.

“We know that Louth are going to bring a huge crowd. We’d urge Roscommon people to fill Breffni with Primrose and Blue, and get behind this young Roscommon team. They’re an exciting bunch, they’re great lads and they’ve worked really, really hard. So get up to Breffni to support these lads and be the 16th man,” he urged.