Roscommon left to rue squandered opportunities
The Roscommon intermediate ladies' football team will wear their new jersey from official kit supplier GOWA for their opening Division Two League game against Monaghan at Johnstown on Sunday.
Roscommon’s return to Division Two ended in defeat as the home side were left to rue squandered opportunities.
Finbar Egan, enjoying his first competitive game in charge of Roscommon, saw his side produce a vastly improved second half display as his charges held Monaghan scoreless for the final half.
Despite outscoring their foes 0-4 to 0-0 after the break, Roscommon will be left to rue their tally of nine wides, seven of which came in a second half where they penned Monaghan in for large stages.
Although frustrated with late refereeing decisions, Roscommon know they had the chances to win this game. With the home side trailing by a point, Aimee O’Connor saw a close range free travel wide of the posts in the 58th minute while Aisling Hanly’s ’45 dropped wide in the 62nd minute. Meanwhile, Shannon McGuinness, who showed plenty of promise on her adult inter county debut, saw a free from almost 40m out drop short.
Roscommon started the quicker with Róise Lennon tapping over a free, but her side were held scoreless for the next 26 minutes as the home side’s propensity to cough up turnovers in the first half was punished.
Monaghan only kicked one point from play in the game which came from Casey Treanor in the third minute. With Éabha Sherry slotting four placed balls while Leanne Maguire and Jodie McQuillan also troubling the scoreboard, Monaghan enjoyed a deserved 0-7 to 0-2 half time lead.
In the second half, Roscommon squeezed up and applied greater pressure to Monaghan’s deep lying runners. This saw the Ulster side, who only won two competitive games last year, second guess themselves as they began to cough up cheap turnovers.
Despite Abby Curran’s sin binning, Shannon McGuinness, Ella Thompson and two Caoimhe Lennon efforts saw Roscommon cut their gap to the minimum. However, on a weekend of change across gaelic football, Roscommon were left with a familiar feeling as they suffered another narrow defeat while playing Division Two football.
*Full match report in Tuesday's Roscommon Herald
