Donie Shine and Senan Kilbride combine to lead Roscommon to Division Three title

Roscommon 1-17
Cavan 0-18

Small earthquake on Jones’s Road, not many hurt. Roscommon went home on Saturday night with the Division Three trophy, Cavan went home without it. And the crowd of 8,654 mostly went away to get warm. No journey home will have had its mood governed by the outcome.

Still, we got a decent game served up before us, plenty watchable and in the balance right up until the closing stages. Cavan both posted and conceded their biggest totals of the league; Roscommon got home without being able to call on 11 of their championship panel.

It was all a bit of lark and by the end it was difficult to shake the sense that were these teams to meet in a July qualifier, the scoreline might have more of a 1-11 to 0-13 look about it.

Opposite fashions
It would be a brave punter who came down emphatically on either side in such a scenario. These are two sides who go about the game in just about equally opposite fashions. Cavan have the better defensive structure, Roscommon the deadlier forwards.

Though they both scored 18 times, the Rossies’ goal was a fluke and Cavan missed a penalty. It wouldn’t take much imagination to see all three possible results if summer finds them in each other’s company.

For now, the Rossies triumphed. They came without their under-21s, who will try to win an All-Ireland next Saturday, and short another five through injury. They rode their luck a little and profited from wayward Cavan shooting in the second half especially when, with the game up for grabs, the Ulster team kicked eight wides to Roscommon’s two. It all told.

“It’s 35 years since Roscommon have won a national title,” said John Evans afterwards.

“We have come in here quietly and we will go home quietly. We won’t have any celebrations because we have championship in three weeks against our neighbours. We are there to be knocked. It’s just the rising of Roscommon. It’s wonderful to be in a football county that has so much passion. They deserve a break.”

That said, they weren’t particularly lively in the first half.

Gearóid McKiernan was in fine fettle at midfield for Cavan and his two first-half points set the water level at a point that left the Rossies spluttering for air. They bookended a terrific opening period from Cavan, which had them 0-7 to 0-2 ahead with 17 minutes gone.

Niall McDermott landed a towering pair of his own and but for that missed penalty by Martin Dunne – a poor effort saved low to his right by Roscommon keeper Darren O’Malley – Cavan would have been away into open country.

Hung in
As it was, Roscommon hung in through frees from Donie Shine and Senan Kilbride, and when wing-back David Keenan loped forward a few minutes short of the break, they were only four points down. He tried to make it three but ended up making it one, his shot for a point falling limply under the crossbar to make the half-time score 0-9 to 1-5 for Cavan.

Roscommon should have been more than one behind but they came out for the second half in no mood to apologise. Kilbride and Shine were excellent, kicking four points apiece, Cavan’s pace dropped off and their tackling was noticeably less fierce as the game went on.

They kept the game close all the same, with their half-forward line of Cian Mackey (two points), Niall McDermott (four) and Martin Reilly (three) a constant source of scores. When Dunne blazed a decent goal chance over the bar two minutes from time, it left just a point between the sides.

But Roscommon breasted the tape thanks to points from substitutes Finbar Cregg and Colin Compton.

"I wouldn't count it as a setback at all," said Cavan manager Terry Hyland. "It was a good competitive game – it's good to get a game like this under your belt in the month of April. We have six weeks now before we play Armagh in the championship, we have club games in the middle of that as well. We have a lot of work to do before championship but we have a lot of time to do it. We got promoted and that was the main aim."

CAVAN: C Gilsenan; J Hayes, R Dunne, F Flanagan (0-1); J McEnroe (0-1), A Clarke, D O'Reilly; G McKiernan (0-2), K Brady; C Mackey (0-2), N McDermott (0-4), M Reilly (0-3, one 45); J Brady, M Dunne (0-3), E Keating (0-2, one free). Subs: K Clare for K Brady ( 27 mins), M Argue for McEnroe (52 mins), M Lyng for J Brady (55 mins), R Maloney-Derham for A Clarke ( 65 mins), D Givney for Lyng (68 mins), K Tierney for Keating (69 mins), D Flynn for C Cregg (72 mins).
ROSCOMMON: D O'Malley; S McDermott, N Carty, N Collins; D Keenan (1-0), N Daly (0-2), C Cafferkey; C Shine, K Higgins (0-1); D O'Gara (0-1), D Shine (0-6, four frees, one 45), D Donnelly; S Kilbride (0-5, three frees), C Cregg, C Murtagh. Subs: R Stack for D Donnelly ( 32 mins), C Compton (0-1) for Murtagh (58 mins), M Finneran for O'Gara (60 mins), F Cregg (0-1) for D Shine (64 mins), C Burns for Higgins (70 mins).
Referee: S Hurson (Tyrone).