Roscommon Senior Football Championship Final

PADRAIG PEARSES 2-10 ROSCOMMON GAELS 1-10

By Kevin Egan at Dr Hyde Park

The bonfires will burn high and long into the night in the south west corner of county Roscommon after Pádraig Pearses recorded their first ever county Senior Football Championship victory in what was their ninth county final.

Backboned by the Daly brothers, Pearses reached this stage of the competition on the back of a stern, robust defence, allied to a goalscoring edge that has been a new feature this year under manager Pat Flanagan.

Four goals against St. Brigid’s in the quarter-final and three against Boyle last time out were followed up with green flags from Conor Payne and Hubert Darcy in the first half of this contest, and those scores proved absolutely crucial as their confident start faded away and the years of hurt led them to fall into a very defensive stance in the final quarter.

After the game, manager Pat Flanagan said that he felt his team should have been out of sight at that stage, as they had played some wonderful football in the opening half, and in the 10 minutes after half time. Conor Daly lorded matters at midfield, kicking two majestic points and getting his hands on a world of ball, while further back down the field the full back line of Shane Carty, Mark Richardson and David Murray were in superb form as they each dominated their individual battles against good scoring forwards in the shape of Cian Connolly, Peter Gillooly and ex-Mayo U-21 footballer Ronan Carolan.

Historically it has been in attack that Pearses have fallen short, but this time around they had a host of players on form, including Emmet Kelly who kicked some superb scores, county U-20 Paul Carey and of course Conor Daly. The inside line duo of Conor Payne and Hubert Darcy didn’t have things all their own way, but they did get in for a goal each that helped Pearses move 2-7 to 0-6 ahead at half time. Darcy and Carey helped set up Payne for the first goal, then a great breaking ball in from Emmet Kelly initiated the attack that led to Darcy showing power and tenacity to fire in the second with 22 minutes on the clock.

It all looked like plain sailing for the men in red as they started the second half in the same vein as the finished the first, with Conor Daly and Emmet Kelly again the two players that got them going with some inspirational scores from distance.

Yet it has never been plain sailing for Pearses before, and it wasn’t today either, even after Bryan O’Gara and Cian Connolly were given straight red cards late in the game.

At that point, white line fever kicked in and it was an uncertain final third that saw them fall rather than stride over the line. Richard Hughes showed incredible composure to play a slide rule ball along the ground and into the corner of the net to cut the lead to a goal, and even with two extra men, Pearses seemed unable to get the ball out of their own half through eight minutes of injury time. Crucially however, they protected Paul Whelan’s goal, and that was all they needed to do.

After so many stories of heartbreak, that was more than enough.

Scorers for Pádraig Pearses: Hubert Darcy (1f) and Conor Payne 1-1 each, Emmet Kelly 0-3 (0-1f), Conor Daly and Paul Carey 0-2 each, Lorcan Daly 0-1.

Scorers for Roscommon Gaels: Cian Connolly 0-5 (4fs), Richard Hughes 1-0, Ronan Carolan 0-2 (1f), Tim Lambe, Peter Gillooly and John McManus 0-1 each.

PADRAIG PEARSES: Paul Whelan; Shane Carty, Mark Richardson, David Murray; Anthony Butler, Ronan Daly, Gavin Downey; Niall Daly, Conor Daly; Lorcan Daly, Niall Carty, Paul Carey; Emmet Kelly, Hubert Darcy, Conor Payne.

Subs: Tom Butler for Kelly (47), Alan Duffy for Carey (49), Sean Ryan for Payne (60+3), Sean Fahy for Downey (60+6), Niall Finneran for L Daly (60+7).

ROSCOMMON GAELS: James Fetherstone; Tim Lambe, John McManus, Mike McNeill; Kevin O’Gara, Richard Hughes, Paul Gleeson; Mark Healy, Kieran Kilcline; Scott Oates, David O’Gara, Brian Kelly; Ronan Carolan, Cian Connolly, Peter Gillooly.

Subs: Mark Nally for Gillooly (39), Bryan O’Gara for Healy (42), Ronan Gleeson for McNeill (44), Cathal Dineen for Kelly (49), James O’Gara for K O’Gara (60+2), Richard Walsh for Kilcline (60+6).

REFEREE: Marty Parker.