Big challenge faces St. James’ in final

Date Published: 04-Nov-2010

Dara Bradley

ST. James’ face probably their strongest opponents to date this year when they take on Roscommon champions Strokestown in the Connacht Club Football Intermediate Final at Tuam Stadium on Sunday (12.30pm).

Strokestown are viewed by most people in Roscommon to be a natural senior club – a combination of poor form and a rotten run of injuries last season saw them drop to intermediate level, but they bounced straight back this year with an impressive run through the county intermediate championship.

In 2002, Strokestown won the Roscommon senior championship and narrowly lost out to Mayo kingpins Crossmolina later that season in the senior Connacht Club final – they certainly won’t be fazed by the big occasion this weekend. St. James’ opponents travel to Tuam Stadium on a high.

Much like the city team, Strokestown didn’t set the world alight in their county final victory earlier this autumn, they just about got over St Brigid’s second team (they have a senior outfit as well), but have built steady momentum since.In the Connacht quarter-final a few weeks ago, Strokestown had a fairly handy victory over Sligo champions, Easkey, and then went on to beat Leitrim title holders Aughawillan 0-10 to 0-6 last weekend.

They are on a roll now and the word from Roscommon is they are determined to make a serious impact beyond their county boundaries this year.Their main scoring threat – the man who did damage in their two provincial matches to date – is John Rogers, a member of the Roscommon senior county team that won a Connacht title by beating Sligo earlier this summer.

Rogers will probably start in the half-forwards but usually has a free role to roam about and will need to be tightly man-marked. Roscommon minor captain of two years ago, Paddy Brogan, who has been converted from corner back since his underage days, is another danger man in attack and well capable of scoring. He is one of a number of graduates of the Strokestown minor side th

at won the Division Two county title in 2008 who are in this squad. Conor Silke, named the Roscommon intermediate footballer of the year for 2010, is another forward to watch in the corner-forward berth; while Ronan ‘shovels’ Owens, a former Roscommon inter-county player, is a proven ball winner and provides physicality at centre-field.