All-Ireland SFC: Cork 0-19 Roscommon 0-17
Like so many football games this season, it ended on a knife edge. Needing just a draw to extend their season, Roscommon were camped in the Cork half when the hooter sounded, scouting for a two-point shot. Knowing the lie of the land, Cork defenders came shooting out of the arc, leaving spaces behind that were worthless to Roscommon now. The usual over-and-back with the ball was suddenly laced with risk.
Eventually Diarmuid Murtagh engineered a yard of grass and had the courage to take on the shot. But as soon as he put his boot to ball Daniel O’Mahony executed a diving block. Seán Powter picked up the pieces and thrashed the ball over the sideline. Cork’s hearts slinked back down their throats.
It was a hectic end to a pulsating second half. Having led by four points at the break, Cork extended their lead to six midway through the second half and seemed to be in control. But one of the patterns of football’s new departure is that scores are liable to come in clusters once a team gets a grip on the opposition kickout.
Cork scored five without reply in the first half, and four without reply in the middle of the second half. But when Roscommon got on top in the final quarter they outscored Cork by 0-5 to 0-1 and missed a handful of other opportunities, including the best goal chance of the game with 12 minutes to go.
Inside Gaelic Games: The weekly GAA newsletter from The Irish Times
Live GAA updates: Donegal and Tyrone both leading at half time; Monaghan beat Down in thriller
Louth take the spoils in Portlaoise to see Clare out of the championship
Clare and Waterford shock provincial champions to reach All-Ireland Minor Hurling decider
Roscommon forced a turnover at centrefield and the outstanding Daire Cregg was put clean through with a raking diagonal pass. Completely exposed, Micheál Aodh Martin rushed from his line and forced Cregg to shoot early. The Cork goalkeeper made a strong one-handed save, taking most of the speed off the shot but not stopping it dead.
The ball carried on at a reduced rate of knots towards the Cork goal line, still open to bids. The Cork defender Seán Brady and the Roscommon substitute Ciarán Lennon hurtled towards it, and Brady just got there first. The difference was inches.
Davy Burke, the Roscommon manager, bemoaned Roscommon’s efficiency afterwards. By his calculation, Cork had converted 65 per cent of their shots while Roscommon’s numbers were only in the mid-50s.
In the end, two-pointers were the clinching issue. They didn’t even attempt one for an hour, but in the closing 10 minutes they tried four shots from outside the arc, none of which hit the target.
In the event, two damaged teams provided a really satisfying spectacle. Since they eviscerated Cork in the league on March 1st Roscommon’s Connacht championship victory over London was their only win in eight matches. Cork had already lost three times in the championship and had failed to build on their heartening performance against Kerry in April.
Nobody’s season could be redeemed here, but Cork and Roscommon would have seen each other as low hanging fruit. With that outlook, both teams had a cut.
Cork will wonder how they nearly let it slip. For half an hour in the middle of the game they utterly dominated centrefield and ran at Roscommon in waves. Colm O’Callaghan and Ian Maguire were superb around the middle, Paul Walsh and Sean McDonnell mopped up breaks, and even though Cork were getting very little from their inside forwards, they were picking off scores from outside.
Cork played with the breeze in the first half, but their four-point lead at the break, 0-10 to 0-6, was at odds with the opening 25 minutes when neither team was able to assert control. The surface was greasy from downpours earlier in the afternoon and both teams were guilty of handling errors and dispiriting turnovers.
Cork, though, were more dangerous on the break, and while neither goalkeeper was forced into a save in the first half, Cork had three goal chances. Two of them fell to a resurgent Maguire who fired over the bar twice from no more than 10 yards out. McDonnell had a whiff of a goal chance too but took a handy point instead – the first of his three.
Roscommon made a bright start to the second period and cut Cork’s lead in half within a couple of minutes. But then Cork settled again and surged again. A run of four points without reply at the end of the second quarter, two of them by O’Callaghan, put Cork 0-17 to 0-11 in front and seemingly comfortable. All that changed. In the end, anything could have happened.
CORK: M A Martin; S Meehan, S Brady, M Shanley; B O’Driscoll (0-1-0), D O’Mahony, M Taylor; I Maguire (0-0-2), C O’Callaghan (0-0-2); P Walsh (0-0-2), S Walsh, S McDonnell (0-0-3); M Cronin (0-0-5, 2f), B Hurley (0-0-1), C Óg Jones.
Subs: R Maguire for Meehan (h-t); E McSweeney (0-0-1) for S Walsh (42 mins); S Powter for P Walsh (55); Deane for Taylor (59); C O’Mahony (0-0-1) for Jones (61).
ROSCOMMON: C Carroll (0-0-1,45); P Frost, B Stack, D Murray; R Daly, S Cunnane, S Lambe (0-0-1); E Nolan (0-0-1), E Smith (0-0-1); D Ruane (0-0-1), D Smith (0-0-1), D Cregg (0-0-5); D Murtagh (0-0-2), B O’Carroll (0-0-1), C Murtagh (0-0-1).
Subs: C Neary for D Smith (50 mins); C McKeon (0-0-2) for Ruane (52); C Hand for Daly (54); C Lennon for O’Carroll (56); D Kenny for Lambe (66).
Referee: M McNally (Monaghan).
