Roscommon refuse to take a step back as they make a date with the 8s
Kevin McStay wasn’t of a mind to play this one down. And why should he?
This was epic. Uplifting. Football played at full pelt and with wanton abandon despite the suffocating heat and humidity and the elevated prize of a Super 8s spot on the line. The 44 scores only tell part of the story. This was about quality as much as quantity.
Armagh had nine points on the board before they registered a wide, yellow cards were about as rare a sight as a windcheater and, though both sides utilised a sweeper, this was as perfect a marriage of skill, intensity, drama, and delivery as you could hope to see.
Anyone who dares suggest that football is dead again should be reminded of this All-Ireland round four qualifier, of the entertainment that was served up by two improving teams, and the Roscommon manager was elated to come out the better side of it.
“Fantastic. You could hear the noise coming out of the dressing room. It is a different country when you are winning these games. We’ve known the dejection of the Connacht final so this is one of the good days. More important we have the three quarter-finals now to develop this group.
“This is a coming-of-age for the group because that was always going to be put up to us by a Kieran McGeeney Armagh team who contributed massively to the contest. We wobbled and it looked like it was gone and we came back great,” said McStay.
He had challenged his side last week. The loss to Galway had been “cleansed from their souls”, he said, but he had laid bare the importance of the prize on offer in Portlaoise and admitted that this was a test of Roscommon’s hearts and souls.
Did they want it enough? Had they the mettle to do it?
“It’s huge because all I wanted to find out was whether this mattered. I think it matters to all of us in the backroom team. I did put the pressure on the players and on ourselves because if I was in Kieran’s dressing room now, I would be asking ‘where are we going with this’?
Check out the full-time highlights between Armagh and Roscommon! pic.twitter.com/dHsOuesKQr
— The GAA (@officialgaa) July 7, 2018
“’Why, on the very big days, does Roscommon always take a step back?’ We want to be in there amongst the Mayos and the Galways and whoever else, so this was a big day. I put it up to them all week and I know I did. If that pressurises us, then that’s life.
“It’s a high-level game and we’re into the last eight in the country.”
There was no step back. Not by either side. Armagh started the stronger and were on the front foot for most of the fourth quarter too but Roscommon made their own periods of relative dominance count for more, chiefly through Enda Smith’s 29th and 75th-minute goals.
A missed penalty by Rory Grugan nine minutes after the interval was atoned for somewhat by a Michael Shields goal two minutes later for Armagh and Roscommon seemed to be wilting as the clock went into the red, before they roused themselves with a late kick of 1-4 without reply.
This one wouldn’t slip away from them.
It was a stirring way to win it and McStay knew it. Cathal Cregg had been glorious as the focal point of the attack, Smith welded a punishing workrate in the air and driving forward to his 2-1 from play and the two Murtaghs, Ciaran and Diarmuid, both signed off on gruelling shifts.
If the defence is something of a concern given Roscommon’s attacking ethos then the inclusion of the odd veteran such as Sean McDermott helped apply some dressing to the regular wounds inflicted by Armagh, and the bench made an understated but crucial impact.
And all this without a string of missing players. Armagh, too. McGeeney suggested afterwards that the men he is missing through injury and absence would make up a side that that “could live with most teams” but his new faces have rarely seemed out of place.
Few aside from the GAA’s version of trainspotters would have known much about the likes of Ryan McShane, Jemar Hall, Paddy Burns, and Conaire Mackin back in January but they have helped return Armagh to Division 2 and push this deep into the summer.
“They did unbelievable,” said McGeeney.
McGeeney knows that the Super 8s would have thrown up the prospect of a heavy defeat or two but he would have dearly loved the opportunity to mix it with Tyrone and Donegal and Dublin, as Roscommon will this next four weeks.
“What we have done is given ourselves a real good shot in the arm for the match next weekend,” said McStay.
I’m not saying we are going to win any games but we will be competitive and we will learn a lot about the group we have and how they mix it in Division 1 next year.
Scorers for Armagh:
N Grimley (0-5, 4 frees); R Grugan (0-5, 2 frees); A Murnin (0-4); M Shields (1-0); A Forker, J Hall, R McShane, S Sheridan and G McParland (all 0-1).
Scorers for Roscommon:
E Smith (2-1); C Murtagh (0-7, 3 frees); D Murtagh (0-5, 4 frees); D Smith and C Cregg (both 0-3); C Devaney, F Cregg, and C Compton 0-1.
ARMAGH:
B Hughes; P Burns, B Donaghy, G McCabe; M Shields, R Owens, S Sheridan; C Vernon, C Mackin; R McShane, J Hill, N Grimley; R Grugan, A Murnin, A Forker. Subs: J McElroy for McCabe (34); R McQuillan for Sheridan (42); N Rowland for Donaghy (48); G McParland for Mackin (52); J Duffy for Hall (62); K Dyas for Murnin (66).
ROSCOMMON:
C Lavin; S McDermott, N McInerney, P Domican; J McManus, N Daly, D Murray; T O’Rourke, E Smith; C Murtagh, N Kilroy, C Devaney; D Smith, D Murtagh, C Cregg. Subs: G Patterson for Domican (45); F Cregg for C Murtagh (56); C Compton for D Smith (58); C Daly for McDermott (61); F Cregg for Kilroy (65); I Kilbride for N Daly (73).
Referee:
J McQuillan (Cavan).
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