Hard work paying off, says goal hero Compton

Steady progress is being made in Roscommon and goal hero Colin Compton believes every team coming out of the county is competitive now.

The emergence of Roscommon CBS combined with the increasing effectiveness at minor and U21 level has injected a county with hope.

Saturday’s success over Cavan was decorated by a stoppage time Compton goal and the promising Strokestown youngster believes several years’ diligent work, spearheaded by coaching officer Willie Hegarty, is beginning to pay on the national stage.

“This is all down to the work of Willie and the lads. All those coaches have put in years of work and it is just paying off. The minor teams coming up and every team that is coming out of Roscommon now is capable of competing with anyone. I am absolutely delighted to get to an All-Ireland final. It was our main aim at the start of the year. At the end I suppose a bit of luck got us through. We knew Cavan were a serious team, they beat all the big guns in Ulster.

“Still we knew that if we played well that we had a very good chance of winning it. Now we are looking forward to the Dubs. They will be raging favourites, but we will hope for the best.”

Full back Cathal Duignan made a string of crucial second-half interventions and also feels Roscommon is on a high. “It is a great boost for Roscommon football. The minors getting to an All-Ireland minor semi-final last year too shows that things are on a high now in Roscommon. The underage structure is going well. We have a tough final against Dublin. They won Leinster handy enough and they won well against Cork so it will be hard. It was a really hard-fought win and we are just delighted to get into the final.”