Roscommon’s incredible journey in All-Ireland U-20 championship comes to an end

Eirgrid All-Ireland U-20 Football Championship Semi-Final

TYRONE 3-18 ROSCOMMON 3-8

Roscommon’s incredible journey in this year’s Eirgrid All-Ireland U-20 championship came to an end at Kingspan Breffni in Cavan earlier this evening where a ruthlessly efficient and talented Tyrone team simply offered too much up front for the Connacht champions to handle.

Noel Dunning’s side will walk out of the Cavan county ground with their heads held high after a wholehearted and full blooded effort to keep pace with a Tyrone side that had 11 scorers by the time the final whistle sounded, but while they mounted one excellent comeback at the start of the second half, their inability to take the lead was to prove costly.

Once Tyrone came with another surge, they simply had nothing left in the tank to try and come again.

Goalkeeper Conor McAneney got Tyrone out of their mini-funk with a couple of excellent long range kicks, and almost in the blink of an eye they were out of sight. A clinical fast break saw Conor O’Neill carry the ball out of defence and once the ball was worked into Eoin McElholm, the Loughmacrory attacker executed a slick turn and a perfect low finish to leave Roscommon in a deep hole once again.

Largely speaking, the first half followed a similar pattern, with Shane McGinley getting the game out to a sensational start with a stunning early goal, and the Strokestown maestro followed up with a point on the next attack to further rouse the Roscommon-dominated crowd of 1,521 supporters.

However, Tyrone to come roaring back with a sumptuous spell of football that saw them retake control of the game.

Eoin McElholm played as a withdrawn corner forward and was something of a playmaker, helping to set up scores for Ruairí McCullagh and Ronan Cassidy, while Tyrone got plenty of joy from pushing up and attacking the Roscommon kickout, with that also helping to bring wing backs Shea O’Hare and Ódhrán Brolly into the game.

A wonderful run from Joey Clarke set up Conor O’Neill for Tyrone’s first goal, and while Roscommon came back with the next two points, including an excellent effort from Rob Heneghan, another run of 1-3 to 0-1 before half-time, with O’Hare getting on the end of a wonderful team move for the goal.

There was another push in Roscommon, but sadly for this group, it wasn’t quite enough to make Tyrone second guess their free-scoring style, and when the Ulster side came with another wave, the Rossies were swept away.

For a full report, reaction and analysis of tonight’s game, be sure to pick up Tuesday’s Roscommon Herald.