Roscommon 0-24 Kildare 2-12
John Evans admitted he was 'bemused' by referee Fergal Kelly's performance as his Roscommon team braved a chaotic ending to reignite their promotion challenge.
The Rossies turned in a storming second-half display in Newbridge and outscored Kildare by 0-16 to 0-4 from the 26th minute onwards.
Cathal Cregg was Roscommon's talisman with six points from play as the visitors bounced back from defeat in Laois a week earlier.
But it’s a result that could ultimately spell relegation for Kildare who have lost four of their five games.
The tie ended in chaos as three players were sent off in two separate injury-time skirmishes.
Kildare’s Eoin Doyle and Roscommon wing-back David Murray were first to go in the 73rd minute followed shortly after by Kildare captain and goal scorer Eamonn Callaghan.
Callaghan had just won a penalty for Kildare after a superb catch but was red carded for an off the ball incident, prompting referee Kelly to blow for full-time and disregard the penalty. Overall, Kelly blew his whistle 55 times for frees, handing 33 to Roscommon.
“I was bemused by a lot of the calls that were there today,” said Evans. “I don’t think the players knew what was going on either. Look, it’s a plus overall. But it didn’t finish in a very nice way.”
Kildare manager Jason Ryan said it was a ‘bizarre’ ending and pointed out that not being allowed to take the penalty could prove significant in scoring difference terms.
Kildare are away to Laois in Galway in their remaining games. They will be without suspended duo Doyle and Callaghan for the Laois tie while Padraig O’Neill is unavailable for both.
They started brightly and led 2-9 to 0-12 at half-time, hinting they would build on their win over Cavan. Paul Cribbin and Daniel Flynn were excellent in this period, contributing 0-5 while Callaghan and Fionn Dowling netted in the 11th and 18th minutes.
But Roscommon dominated the second-half and restarted with six unanswered points. Cregg was superb throughout, tallying 0-6 while the Murtaghs were reliable free-takers.
Roscommon: D O'Malley; S McDermott, N Collins, D Murray; N Daly (0-1), N Carty, D Keenan; C Shine (0-1), M Healy; C Daly (0-2), C Murtagh (0-4, 3f), C Cafferkey; D Murtagh (0-4, 3f), S Kilbride (0-3, 1f), C Cregg (0-6).
Subs.: E Smith (0-1) for Healy (29), U Harney (0-1) for Cafferkey (55), I Kilbride for C Murtagh (66), C Compton (0-1) for D Murtagh (66), C Connolly for Cregg (70).
Kildare: M Donnellan; E Bolton, M O'Grady, O Lyons; K Cribbin, F Conway, E Doyle; P Cribbin (0-4), G White (0-2); P O'Neill, E O'Flaherty (0-4, 4f), D Flynn (0-1); E Callaghan (1-0), T O'Connor, F Dowling (1-0).
Subs.: A Smith (0-1) for Dowling (31), C Fitzpatrick for O’Neill (55), P Fogarty for O’Connor (59), D Mulhall for Flynn (66), T Moolick for White (70).
Referee: F Kelly (Longford).
