Gaelic Games

Kerry victory leaves Roscommon on the brink of relegation

Roscommon wasteful at home as Kerry give themselves chance to make league final

Roscommon’s Ruaidhrí Fallon and Kerry’s Paudie Clifford. Photograph: Evan Logan/Inpho

Seán Moran
Sun Mar 17 2024 - 18:38

National Football League Division One: Roscommon 1-11 Kerry 1-17

Jack O’Connor was happy to have come to Hyde Park in Roscommon and secured a decent win which keeps alive Kerry’s chances of making the league final. Sufficient to the day.

“We were looking for a controlled performance rather than a champagne performance,” as he put it himself. It wasn’t all satisfaction for the Kerry manager, as full back Jason Foley injured his ankle contesting a restart and had to be helped off. “Looks a bad one,” was O’Connor’s bleak prognosis.

It is also looking a bit bleak for Roscommon, who put in a respectable shift before falling short. They have a lifeline but it involves winning the last match in Derry and hoping that Galway are defeated in Killarney.

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The second part hardly stretches credulity but the first will take some doing even though the Ulster champions are all but in the league final after this weekend’s results.

“We’re far from gone yet,” was Roscommon manager Davy Burke’s spirited response after the match. “We’ve a right chance in Celtic Park.”

Burke was happy with his team’s display if not the outcome and they did give a feisty account of themselves in a match that Kerry occasionally looked as if they might disappear over the horizon.

The visitors’ patient, sustained attacks – one running to around three minutes of possession – were invariably rounded off with the creation of a scoring chance and its unfussy execution. Roscommon had similar attacks, building slowly and methodically but nowhere near the same accuracy – their first four shots going wide.

It was a commentary in itself that goalkeeper Conor Carroll, pushing forward in the modern fashion, steered what was only their second point over the bar as late as the 21st minute. By then, they trailed by 0-1 to 0-6.

Kerry pushed up and the pace of Gavin White opened doors. With captain, Paudie Clifford directing traffic and the team in general shooting with good accuracy – the wides count saw Kerry with four and Roscommon with three times that – the visitors controlled the scoreboard all the way through.

They could have had some more. There was the unusual sight of David Clifford fluffing a penalty kick, awarded when referee Noel Mooney blew immediately for David Murray’s foul on Seán O’Shea, just before the latter dexterously flicked the ball to the net.

Clifford’s point was the only score Kerry registered that wasn’t from play.

Roscommon’s Enda Smith, David Murray and Brian Stack with Kerry’s David Clifford. Photograph: Evan Logan/Inpho

Roscommon rallied in the second quarter – a shuddering challenge by Ruaidhrí Fallon on Darragh Roche forced a turnover score for Daire Cregg – and they trailed by four at the break, 0-4 to 0-8.

Two quick scores from Enda Smith and Cregg threatened a genuine resurgence but Kerry simply pulled away again. With Roscommon struggling to sustain pressure, David Clifford, Dara Moynihan and Barry Dan O’Sullivan stretched the scoreboard and when O’Shea’s first point of the match in the 53rd minute put the margin back to six, 0-13 to 0-7, it looked all over.

This proved premature. Within a minute, replacement Cathal Heneghan had punched home a goal after good work by Diarmuid Murtagh and suddenly a full-on contest shimmered into view again. Kerry never let their grip be completely loosened and the lead was never shaved any further than three.

O’Connor was a bit frustrated at his team’s failure to kill things off a bit earlier.

“I just thought we made the game in the second half a bit harder on us,” he said. “We’d a chance of going five up with the punched point, and we tried to work the goal and it just didn’t go to hand. But we did enough, and it was nice that Joe finished off there with the goal and just made it comfortable for us.”

That goal by Joe O’Connor was well worked by the player himself and replacement Paul Geaney, who finished with 0-2 having come on for the last 15 minutes. Both featured twice in the move before the centrefielder finished well from close range.

In truth it was a match that Kerry never really looked like losing. Roscommon played well in limiting the damage and Burke was happy to have got match time for a few returning players. Ronan Daly came in from the start and did well, not having started in two years.

“He’s a fair player. He’s had a year or so in Dubai, came back, put in a good month’s work and pulled his quad.”

Asked about the goal, he provided an update on the returning players: “Good attack from Diarmuid [Murtagh] up the line and Cathal Heneghan came across – wasn’t it brilliant to see Cathal Heneghan back? All we’re trying to do is find him minutes, find Ultan minutes, find Tadhg minutes, find Ronan Daly minutes. It’s hard though week on week.”

Burke also said that key forward Ben O’Carroll wouldn’t be back until championship because of a groin injury but he was upbeat about it all.

“When you have Ronan, Cathal, Tadhg, Ultan and Ben O’Carroll – we’ll be all right. I wouldn’t be worrying about us.”

ROSCOMMON: C Carroll (0-1); D Murray, N Higgins, B Stack (capt); N Daly, C Hussey, R Daly (0-2); S Cunnane, T O’Rourke; R Fallon, E Smith (0-3), D Ruane; D Cregg (0-2), D Murtagh, D Smith (0-3, two frees). Subs: U Harney for O’Rourke (31 mins), P Gavin for Higgins (half-time), C Cox for Cunnane (half-time), C Heneghan (1-0) for Hussey (46 mins), C Connolly for Murtagh (55 mins).

KERRY: S Ryan; G O’Sullivan, J Foley, P Murphy; Seán O’Brien (0-1), T Morley, G White; BD O’Sullivan (0-2), J O’Connor (1-1); A Spillane, P Clifford (capt, 0-1), D Moynihan (0-1); D Clifford (0-6, one penalty), D Roche (0-1), S O’Shea (0-1). Subs: Stephen O’Brien (0-1) for Spillane (52 mins), P Geaney (0-2) for Roche (58 mins), D Casey for Seán O’Brien (59 mins), A Heinrich for Foley (injured, 52 mins) K Evans for Moynihan (68 mins),

Referee: N Mooney (Cavan).

Seán Moran

Seán Moran

Seán Moran is GAA Correspondent of The Irish Times

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