‘The early goals killed us’ — Carroll

Roscommon’s hopes of lifting the Dr. Mick Loftus Cup for the first time came screeching to a shuddering halt as Tyrone proved too strong in a one-sided national decider on Saturday last.

Tyrone justified their heavy favourites tag. They did the heavy lifting in the early stages before striking for sucker punch goals in the second half from Conor Gormley and Martin Taggart on the hour mark.

Roscommon knew Tyrone possessed a multitude of threats, with star names Stephen O’Neill and Conor Gormley excelling. After the game, Roscommon manager Anthony Carroll was magnanimous in defeat, admitting that his side simply ran into a superior force at Kingspan Breffni.

“They were the better team by a mile. The early goals killed us. They were just too good, they had the better movement and they moved the ball better than us. The ball over the top caught us two or three times.

“It was a great occasion but you would like to be closer when you are there, but that is the way it is,” the Kilmore man explained.

Tyrone’s strength-in-depth caused real issues as the winners’ movement off the ball and ability to win turnover ball paved the way for them to stifle Roscommon attacks throughout. Possessing a player of Stephen O’Neill’s ability is an obvious major factor in helping Tyrone win the big games but they have an able support cast across the field.

Mark Donnelly and Michael Anderson took their goals with aplomb while Leo Meenan slotted 1-3 against Dublin in the semi-final and added a further three points in this decider. Meanwhile, Aidan Brady excelled at full-back while Martin McGrath and Barry Collins were excellent in midfield.

The challenge for Roscommon is to try and build on this memorable run. With Tyrone and Dublin considered ahead of the pack, their meeting at the semi-final stage proved advantageous from Roscommon’s perspective this season.

Anthony Carroll’s men still needed to produce a display filled with grit to overcome Kerry in their semi-final but now the challenge is to keep this core group together and add the missing pieces should they fall into place. It is something Carroll is keen to see happen.

“It was our first time to be here, so it is great to get this far and hopefully we can build on it and get back again next year. Hopefully, we can get a few more players in and strengthen it another bit,” the Roscommon manager noted.

Roscommon emerged triumphant in six games this year, with four of those victories coming by a single score.

The challenge for Roscommon is to move ahead of the chasing pack and closer to the top sides while dealing with the fact that they will now be viewed as a greater threat by their peers in 2025.

“It does give lads a bit more of an incentive. We weren’t that far ahead of a lot of teams to get here. We won games by one point or two points while they had been winning games fairly convincingly. They beat Dublin by five points, so they are a very good team. The key now is to try and build it for next year,” the Roscommon manager concluded.