Footballers can expect nothing handy in Hyde Park

Date Published: 16-May-2012

IT’S been four years since Roscommon and Galway last squared up to each other in the Connacht senior football championship, but that forgettable encounter in Pearse Stadium produced one of the most one-sided encounters in the history of the provincial title race with the Tribesmen cantering home on a 2-16 to 0-6 margin.

That was a dark day for Roscommon football, but two summers later they had regrouped sufficiently to capture their 20th Connacht title when edging out Sligo and were also back in the final last year only to just fall short against Mayo (0-13 to 0-11). Though still languishing in Division Three of the National League after only winning four of their seven group encounters in the spring, the county’s fortunes are generally on an upward curve.

Roscommon have gradually been getting their football house in order again, investing heavily in under-age development over the past five or six years and the success of that initiative is reflected in the All-Ireland minor triumph of 2006, together with their progress to the recent U-21 showdown when they gave Dublin’s highly regarded outfit a serious rattling in Tullamore. Overall, it is arguable that Roscommon have the best young talent coming through in the province.

Former inter-county player Des Newton is now at the Roscommon helm and, like his squad, is bound to relish Sunday’ championship against Galway in Hyde Park. They are physically strong in most sectors and Donal Shine, if on a going day, can prove a handful for the best of opposition defences. With St. Brigid’s also claiming the Connacht Club title last winter, the least Roscommon supporters will be expecting is a high-energy show on the team’s home turf.

It’s a fixture which has danger written all over it for a Galway outfit which produced their best performances in the opening and closing matches of the county’s Division Two campaign. New boss Alan Mulholland could have been forgiven for thinking that senior management wasn’t such a pressurised zone after all when they upset the odds against Derry in Celtic Park last February. It represented a flying start to Galway’s league campaign, but seven days later they were fortunate to escape with a draw at home to Louth.

Subsequently, Mulholland must have been wondering what he had let himself in for when they suffered a shock defeat to a struggling and understrength Westmeath side in Mullingar, but the Salthill man kept his cool, publicly at least, and they managed to turn things around with victories over Meath and Monaghan, together with an honourable display in defeat against Division Two pace setters Tyrone.

The upshot was that Galway had still every chance of making the Division Two final and, in the process, having the opportunity of earning a quick-fire return to the league’s top flight when hosting Kildare in Pearse Stadium in early April. However, trailing by four points at the interval having played with the wind, the men in maroon looked a beaten docket, only to really catch fire on the resumption with some swashbuckling and high quality football. Ultimately, they were unluckily denied victory when John Doyle netted an equalising penalty in injury time.

Galway have been lying relatively low in the interim and while injuries have come and gone, the removal of Nicky Joyce from the squad last month for lacking the necessary application was an important statement of intent by the team management.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.