Carr's crumbs of comfort for Larry

Roscommon 0-14

CORK duo Colin Corkery and Brendan Jer O’Sullivan won support from an unlikely source yesterday after being sent off in their All Ireland SFC qualifier defeat at Dr Hyde Park on Saturday.

Winning Roscommon manager Tommy Carr empathised with his counterpart Larry Tompkins and the two dismissed players after the defeat, insisting that players were being sent off nowadays for “absolutely nothing.”

“I’m sick and tired of seeing players being sent off for incidents that they shouldn’t be”, said the winning manager.

“Players are being sent off for nothing. This is a man’s game, it’s a tough game, it’s a physical game, and fellas are getting fast and stronger and there is bound to be hard contact as a result.

“I’m so disappointed at the sendings off. Players are walking for absolutely nothing and the whole situation has to be addressed by those in charge.

“Another aspect of the day that displeases me was the way the Cork coach was attacked on the field by a so called follower in a red jersey. I certainly didn’t want that kind of thing to happen here in Roscommon.

“Larry Tompkins doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment from a Cork follower.

"Larry had been a tremendous servant to the GAA and to Cork football over the last seven years as a coach and throughout his magnificent playing career.

"He doesn’t need that kind of treatment. Indeed none of us do.”

Referring to his side’s one point victory, Carr was he was obviously delighted at being still in the championship.

“It was our first competitive win since last March and I’m delighted with it for a number of reasons.

“We showed commendable spirit in holding off the Cork revival in the second half, and the couple of new players who were tasting championship football for the first time acquitted themselves very well.

“We set the basis for our victory in the 10 minutes coming up to half time when we struck a great purple patch and scored five points without reply to lead by double scores at the interval.

"Today we kept our nerve when the pressure came.

“We had many fine individual performances but our goalkeeper Shane Curran was magnificent pulling off a couple of outstanding saves which kept us in the game.

“It is good to beat a team of Cork’s quality. There was always going to be a kick back from them after the Limerick defeat. Relief at the victory is probably the best way to sum up how I feel.”

The sides were level four times in the opening half before Roscommon hit a great spell scoring five points without reply to lead 0-10 to 0-5 at half time.

In that opening period Cork wasted two gilt edged chances of goals, one by Alan Cronin which was brilliantly saved by goalkeeper Shane Curran, and the other when Eoin Sexton literally fell over the ball after he had made a great 60 yard run.

Another major disappointment for Cork in that first half was the failure of the usually reliable Colin Corkery to point from frees and a ‘45’.

Corkery began to finally find the target in the second half with two points from frees, but Roscommon were also scoring through Stephen Lohan and the Rebel County were in need of a goal if they were to have any chance.

The chance fell to O Croinin but his effort was superbly saved by Curran and while Cork did manage to get the deficit down to three points with 10 minutes to go, the chance of victory vanished following the dismissals which occurred within a minute of each other.

Despite being down to 13 players, Cork kept the pressure on the Roscommon defence and were finally rewarded when Eoin Sexton came forward to beat Shane Curran. Indeed they had two half chances to force extra time but they were wasted.

“The goal chances we missed were the difference between the sides said coach Larry Tompkins who refused to discuss his future with the team, saying ‘that was for another day.’

“Fair play to Roscommon, the battled hard for their victory, but I feel we were the better team over the 70 minutes, we just didn’t seem to have any luck, and a couple of dubious refereeing decisions didn’t go our way, but that’s football.

“I don’t want to be critical of the referee and I’m not making excuses, but the refereeing all over the county this year has been terrible and it has to be looked at.”

Asked about the incident involving the Cork supporter, Tompkins added: “My primary concern was the team on the field.”

Scorers for Roscommon: F. Dolan 0-6 (0-4 frees); G. Cox, G. Lohan (0-1 free) 0-2 each; K. Mannion, S. O’Neill, J.. Dunning, S. Lohan 0-1 each.

Cork: C. Corkery 0-4 (frees); E. Sexton 1-0; M. O Croinin 0-2; C. Crowley, BJ O’Sullivan, D. Kavanagh, G. O’Shea 0-1 each.

ROSCOMMON: S. Curran; J. Nolan, D. Casey, J. Whyte; M. Beirne, F. Grahan, P. Noone; S. O’Neill, S. Lohan; G. Cox, G. Lohan, D. Connellan; J. Dunning, K. Mannion, F. Dolan.

Subs. E. Towey for Berine; M. Beirne for Grahan; E. Ryan for Nolan; T. Tiernan for Connellan.

CORK: K. O’Dwyer; S. O’Brien, N. Geary, A. Lynch, S. Levis, G. Canty, E. Sexton; N. Murphy, M. McCarthy; BJ O’Sullivan, M. Cronin, A. Cronin; C. Crowley, C. Corkery, M. O Croinin.

Subs: D. Kavanagh for McCarthy; J. O’Donoghue for A. Cronin; J. O’Shea for Crowley; J. Miskella for Murphy; B. Collins for O’Croinin.

Referee: M. Monahan (Kildare).