Minors round off provincial round robin campaign with third victory
Roscommon corner-back Colin Murray tries to extract himself from Sligo forward Cathal Gilligan during Friday evening's Connacht minor football championship encounter at Dr. Hyde Park. Picture: Gerard O'Loughlin
Roscommon confirmed their place in the semi-final of this year’s Connacht Minor Football Championship with a routine victory against Sligo at a damp Dr. Hyde Park.
Goals from Dean Casey and Seán McDonnell did the trick as James Duignan’s young men rounded off a hugely encouraging round robin campaign with their third win from four games.
The Roscommon management gave game time to key players on their panel, and tiredness understandably set in during the final quarter on the back of four games in as many weeks.
At that stage, the damage was done on the scoreboard as Roscommon led by 2-7 to 0-4, and a late Sligo rally only served to take the bleak look off the scoreboard from the visitors’ perspective.
Sligo made the early running as Roscommon started the match sluggishly, but all they had to show for their early endeavour was a point from corner-forward Cathal Gilligan.
Eventually, Roscommon settled to dominate the remainder of the half, with the impressive Dara Curran, Seán McDonnell and Stephen Tighe splitting the posts.
A goal from Dean Casey soon followed, and, by the midway mark, the home side were in control leading by 1-5 to 0-3.
It got better for the hosts two minutes into the second half when Curran set up McDonnell who finished calmly to the corner of the net.
One of Roscommon’s best players on the evening, Colin Murray, embellished his performance with a point, as did substitute Ciarán Mulry late on.
Niall Duffy, who was Sligo’s top scorer with 0-5, grabbed a few points for the Yeats County. Substitute Tadhg Murphy and Cian Nicholson added to their side’s tally, but they had left themselves with too much to do.
Roscommon, who are now guaranteed second place, will play Sligo or Galway in the semi-final, which has been provisionally fixed for the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence in two weeks’ time, even though Roscommon had to travel to Castlebar to play Mayo who finished second a year ago.
ROSCOMMON: P. Gaynor; M. Connaughton, K. Kelly, C. Murray (0-1); E. Collins, D. Devaney, A. Cox; S. McDonnell (1-1), C. Enright; J. McKeon, D. Curran (0-2, one free), A. Conroy; C. Kennedy, D. Casey (1-1, one free), S. Tighe (0-2). Subs used: S. Malec-Hannon for Kennedy (37 mins), M. Brooks for Connaughton (41 mins), C. Mulry (0-1) for McDonnell (44 mins), R. Glynn for Curran (47 mins), G. Casey for Collins (54 mins).
SLIGO: G. Cummins; S. Murphy, N. Phillips, C. Murray; J. Lavin, A. Lillie, P. Brady; C. Nicholson (0-1), C. McDonagh; E. Finnerty, N. Duffy (0-5, four frees), D. Woodrow; C. Gilligan (0-1), M. Clifford, A. Feeney. Subs used: B. Cawley for Clifford (half-time), D. Currid for Feeney (half-time), T. Murphy (0-1) for Murray (50 mins), M. Walsh for McDonagh (52 mins), C. Langan for Finnerty (54 mins).
Referee: M. McCloskey (Leitrim).
