Those who made the trek to Salthill early last Sunday to catch a glimpse of this year’s batch of Mayo minors after getting a glowing recommendation following their destruction of Galway in the Connacht semi-final, will have been rightly scratching their heads at full time. It would be hard to imagine any two sides coming together in a provincial final and producing a worse game of football. Mayo got a second chance at the death, thanks to captain Aidan Walsh who tapped over a free manufactured by Cillian O’Connor a minute into injury time, which was sweet relief for Mayo. Roscommon players and supporters will be scratching their own heads at how they contrived to not win a game. They just avoided hitting double the amount of wides to scores they got on the board (15 in total ), but also dropped a number of efforts short of the target or so wild that they managed to drift off target and still not cross the end line.
Mayo for their part only managed two scores in the second half of the contest and one wide to go with it. During the final 30 minutes they were playing with the aid of a typically strong Salthill breeze, but still couldn’t get anything of not moving from Danny Kirby’s point three minutes into half to Walsh’s free a minutes into overtime. Mayo were so out of sorts in the middle of the park, where Kirby and his midfield colleague Alex Corduff were over ran by Cathal Shine and Sonny McNulty, that star forward and captain Aidan Walsh had to be pulled far away from his full forward posting where the Castlebar man had the ability to cause the most damage. But despite their dominance, Roscommon were not able to see off Mayo and the green and red side lived to fight another day and will have learned greatly from the humbling experience of last Sunday.
Work has to be done
After the game, Ray Dempsey took his time in coming to speak to the media, the Knockmore man always calls it as he sees it and it was no different this time around. When it was put to him that his side had got out of jail at the last minute, Dempsey didn’t try to sugar coat it. “Well I think that’s stating the obvious. We were very, very lucky. The lads were very flat on their feet today.”
Dempsey had said before the game that he though that people were writing off Roscommon chances based on Mayo’s comfortable win over Galway in the last round and weren’t giving the primrose and blue county enough credit. “I was concerned about it going into the game, but now we know there are tow teams capable of winning the Connacht title. Roscommon were exceptional toady and should have one it.” The manager, who is in his third year in charge of the side, kept up the praise for his side’s opponents later on, saying: “I said it last year and I’ll say it again this year, Roscommon are one of the most progressive counties for underage development in the country and let’s not shy away from that. We seem to label counties with how the senior stuff is going, but if you only start a s development plan in the last few years you can’t expect it to come through to senior [immediately]. I think you’ll remember the words I’m saying here in a few years. Roscommon are going to be a powerhouse of Connacht football.”
With Mayo getting dominated in the middle of the park for long periods of the game, it was put to Dempsey that his midfield were not on top form during the game. “Size is something you can’t manufacture, and we had our two biggest lads competing with them, they won a lot of breaks. But midfield is not just about eight and nine anymore, it’s about the whole system you play in that area and how everyone plays in the area.”
Dempsey knows that things will not be easy on Sunday in Hyde Park when the sides come together again an his side will have to up their game if Mayo are to retain the Connacht minor title. “Today was a draw and learning curve for the players, Roscommon were exceptional. They were coming into the game as underdogs and everyone was telling us that we were going to win the Connacht title, and Roscommon were hurt by that. They’re a proud county and they showed their commitment to Connacht minor football. Your going to be favourites sometimes and we were favourites today, it’s a long process for minors to be able to cope with that and everyone know knows that two teams can win this Connacht title.”
The replay has been set by the Connacht council for Dr Hyde Park, Sunday July 26 at 5pm, with extra time if necessary to be played, with Sligo’s Michael Duffy the man in the middle.
