Roscommon scrape past Exiles

London 1-08 Roscommon 0-12

Roscommon's footballers will board the flight home from London tonight with their reputations just about intact, after they survived a torrid time from the Exiles at Ruislip.

Noel Dunning's London side almost pulled off the shock of the championship as they led, thanks mainly to Shane McInerney's first half goal, for much of this end-to-end Connacht SFC quarter-final tie.

Free-taker Barry Solan, who impressed at the top of the right, chipped over four straight frees for a blistering London start.

Amid a flurry of early wides, Ger Heneghan and Enda Kenny reduced the arrears for a shaky Ros, but McInerney's goal, punched to the net on 17 minutes from a bouncing Solan free, saw the London men push on and the visitors' defence guilty of ball-watching.

Stephen Lohan and Heneghan (0-02) brought the tie back to 1-06 to 0-07 in London's favour by half-time, and Ros were level within five minutes of the second half thanks to the same players finding their range.

Goalkeeper Shane Curran did well to block out a London goal chance just seconds after the restart, and although substitute Stephen Coffey grabbed a neat London score, Gary Cox leveled for the second time on 56 minutes.

From then on, Val Daly's side just about deserved their win. Their passage through to a semi-final meeting with reigning provincial champions Mayo was forced to endure another late scare when former Wexford attacker Scott Doran watched on agonisingly as his punched 67th-minute goal shot rattled the Ros crossbar.