Ros v Sligo

heineken_on_tap

Obviously not the glamour tie of the weekend but any predictions?

One Cold Hand

I reckon the Rossie's should take it. 5points maybe?

patmac

Will be a close one. Roscommon have been training since last September:eek: so they should be fit. Sligo need to win to avoid the Tommy Cooper Cup, but home advantage may give the Rossies the edge. Also our club Padraig Pearses are playing Louisburgh in the Connacht League as the curtain raiser throw in is at 1.30pm any floating Rossie support would be appreciated.

cruiserweight

patmac wrote:

Sligo need to win to avoid the Tommy Cooper Cup, but home advantage may give the Rossies the edge.

Are Sligo not in division 3 next year which means that they will be in the qualifiers if they lose?

I would say Roscommon to shade it, having O'Neill back should help the team

Roscommon (SF v Sligo): G Claffey; S McDermott, A McDermott, P O’Connor; S Daly, D Casey, R Dooner; S O’Neill, M Finneran; J Tiernan, G Cox, C Cregg; D Connellan, K Mannion, G Heneghan

gucci

wont be exactly clear cut for the rossies in my opinion. although as a rossie i prefer not to go in overly-confident for a game question marks over o'neills recovery from his ankle injury and it being david caseys first game in ages after injury would mean that getting into the crucial last 15-20 mins we may struggle especially as were a bit thin on players to spring froim the bench and maughna seems to always make the change about 10 minutes after a player is clearly fecked out on his feet! Although as stated above we should be fitter than ever.

I'll go for a ros win by 2-3 points, not without a few nail biting moments! hopefully cathal cregg and ger heneghan provide a healthy amount of scores between them.

we also have our new jerseys to play in (havnt seen them yet!)

rossie1977

i have a very bad feeling for this match. I think Sligo will win rather easily in fact. Where are the scores coming from apart from Gerry H.?? Mannion will probably be moved to midfield to form a 3-man wrecking crew which worked well against Cavan but our full-back line and goalkeeper look like an accident waiting to happen every match.

I think the ultimate kick-in-the-face is the fact that the best footballer in the county will be playing BEFORE the senior match; i believe:mad: while the best scorer sits at home twiddling his thumbs.

Prediction:
Sligo 2-10
Roscommon 0-10

blackbelt

Haven't seen anything too special from either team and last time Sligo really meant something to a neutral was against Cork in 04.

I reckon Roscommon to take it by 2 points

Roscommon 2-6 Sligo 1-7

gucci

rossie1977 wrote:

I think the ultimate kick-in-the-face is the fact that the best footballer in the county will be playing BEFORE the senior match; i believe:

who's that? (not trying to be smart!)

patmac

gucci wrote:

who's that? (not trying to be smart!)

Go early and see for yourself.

Kojak

Like many others here, I believe that Roscommon will win this match. But I dont think they will have much to spare over Sligo. The 2 teams, IMO would be pushing for third position in Connacht behind Mayo and Galway they are about at the same standard.

If Maughan has the Rossies as fit as they should be (considering the amount of training they have done since September) and the added bonus of their minors winning the All-Ireland and St. brigids winning the Connacht title last year, it should be set up for a Roscommon win.

Maybe a 3 point win for the Rossies, with home advantage swinging it for them.

gucci

patmac wrote:

Go early and see for yourself.

well i played against pearses about a month ago and im trying to figure out who it is!! :eek: there was one guy who kicked over some lovely frees that day, we drew in senior league in may

patmac

gucci wrote:

well i played against pearses about a month ago and im trying to figure out who it is!! :eek: there was one guy who kicked over some lovely frees that day, we drew in senior league in may

Yeah Sean Fahey was training with Ross last September and throughout the winter, never really got a chance and was cut from the panel.

gucci

hes a fine kicker of the ball alright, what age is he? derek conellean was a late returner to the panel so he may not be completely out of the running yet, although he may be bit dishartened after not recieving an explaination. man management doesnt seem to be maughans strength, and also sacrificing some of the best footballers in the county because theyre not "physical" enough. im talking about the likes of john rodgers etc

patmac

gucci wrote:

hes a fine kicker of the ball alright, what age is he?

man management doesnt seem to be maughans strength, and also sacrificing some of the best footballers in the county because theyre not "physical" enough. im talking about the likes of john rodgers etc

He's 23-24. I agree with you about the physicality issue their is a lot of Roscommon talent not playing on Sunday for one reason or another, also I wonder how fresh they will be it must be very hard to keep lads from going stale if their training since last September.

gucci

seamus o'neill is interviewed in the farmers journal this week.....dosn't get much more glamorous than that!!
you can read it here

Your Man

some good all that fitness training did for us today

gucci

yeah a bit of balls and a bit of cop on would have done us the world of good yesterday. the first half was played at league game, in the second roscommon were second to every ball, and any ball they were first to they were pushed off easily or didnt look interested in. fair play to sligo ,they had a bit of spirit about them and should have won by far more than the 2 points they did. it would have been an injustice to them if finneran had have tied it up with a minute to go.
maughan is a joke, i know our panel is weak at the fringes but we were beat all over the field in the second half and his only change was the standard one that NEVER works of bringing mannion out to midfield and bringing on kenny. oh and then bringing on 2 of last years minors with about a minute to go......top stuff from a true leader

kevmy

Well tough luck to the Rossies, from what I heard coming over the border in the last few weeks ye weren't too confident anyway. Ye have no one to blame but Maughan. While I know there was a discipline problem in Ros and all that there's no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater (if you can picture Frankie as a baby that is:D ).
But then it's Maughan style falling out with the best players because he's a control freak and then making rubbish subs. He's an expert at making bad subs, one that sticks out in my mind is the Final in '97. Dermot Flannagan (corner back) went off injured and Maughan put on a half-forward and then made about 5 positional switches meaning that no-one knew you they were marking. Then Maurice Fitz showed up:rolleyes:
That shouldn't take anything away from Sliog I've massive respect for what Tommy Brehony has done there. I thought Sligo were into the wilderness for another 20 years but now they're in a Connacht Final

patmac

I have to say the first half an hour was some of the worst football I ever saw the Ros goals were very good but that was it. Sligo deserved it and wanted it more, O'Hara was very impressive but being outscored 0-9 to 0-1 in the last half hour shows that Ros were fit for feck all.
On a more positive note we won the Connacht League 1-15 to 1-7. So serious hangover time.

Flukey

A surprise but good win.

It would be great if Leitrim beat Galway next.

rossie1977

well i was proved rite after all (i think i was the only roscommon person predicting sligo would win).

Everyone in roscommon and the media were underestimating sligo big time; big mistake.

i was at the sligo matches v tyrone and armagh a few years back and you underestimate this sligo team at your peril. Everyone is now blaming maughan and how the team could be outscored 9 points to 1 in the last 30 minutes. Well for those who weren't in Croker in 2002 better look up the stats of the Armagh and Tyrone games again, especially the fact that Armagh (who would go on to win the all-ireland that year) were 7 points up with 18 minutes to go against Sligo :eek: and just managed to hang on for a draw that day.

kevmy

rossie1977 wrote:

well i was proved rite after all (i think i was the only roscommon person predicting sligo would win).

Everyone in roscommon and the media were underestimating sligo big time; big mistake.

I don't know all the Rossies I knew were not expecting much from this Roscommon team. They might have been expecting to get past Sligo here but only just.

On the plus side for you guys ye have a superstar of the future in Cathal Cregg

rossie1977

kevmy wrote:

On the plus side for you guys ye have a superstar of the future in Cathal Cregg

maybe if he climbs down off that high-horse he is currently sitting on. The celebrations between himself and gerry Heneghan after ross went 6 points up just five minutes into the second half were stupid and probably spurred sligo on to win this game :mad:

Smarmore

rossie1977 wrote:

well i was proved rite after all (i think i was the only roscommon person predicting sligo would win).

Everyone in roscommon and the media were underestimating sligo big time; big mistake.

i was at the sligo matches v tyrone and armagh a few years back and you underestimate this sligo team at your peril. Everyone is now blaming maughan and how the team could be outscored 9 points to 1 in the last 30 minutes. Well for those who weren't in Croker in 2002 better look up the stats of the Armagh and Tyrone games again, especially the fact that Armagh (who would go on to win the all-ireland that year) were 7 points up with 18 minutes to go against Sligo :eek: and just managed to hang on for a draw that day.

I was at that Armagh game myself, it was a double header with someone else, can't remember who now. Unbelievable to see Armagh surrender a lead, especially like that. That was 5 years ago though!! The team has gone steadily downhill since then. I think most people thought it would be a tight game but went for Roscommon because of Maughans involvement. Now because they surrender a lead it's all Maughans fault?? The players have to take responsibility as well.

gucci

with the exception of the goal cregg's performance was very disappointing. his man johnny davey was bombing forward all the time and cregg who has great pace too couldnt/didnt keep with him, connellan who wouldnt be as fast (although still no lurker!) did bit better on him defensively when maughan switched cregg in to corner forward when basically taking him off would have been probably a better option at that stage of the game, but i guess that would have been a tough call on a guy who scored a great goal and maughan isnt renowned for making that decisive tough call during a match.

most rossie fans didnt expect much more than a scrape through victory here, based on league form and a not overly convincing performance against new york what had we to go on to judge sligo? but fair play to them they knew how to up the game to championship pace where as roscommon were in challenge match mode

gucci

Smarmore wrote:

. I think most people thought it would be a tight game but went for Roscommon because of Maughans involvement. Now because they surrender a lead it's all Maughans fault?? The players have to take responsibility as well.

id agree whole heartedly that the players have to take responsiblility, when the time to stand up and be counted came yesterday too many of them hid or gave away cheap possession, and one could point the finger at some of the more experienced campaigners for this! our two best players were probably the two mcdermotts at corner and full back, and the full back anthony is much critisied and abused, but he could not be faulted for effort yesterday, whatever about ability.

when roscommon had a free, i think they were still a point up(*could have been level), richard dooner went to take it and everyone from midfield and all 6 forwards and his companions on the half back line stood and watched him............nobody made a move!! it was crazy, he stood with the ball waiting for someone to show for it and the ref blew for time wasting!!

rossie1977

sligo still have the bones of that team left with the likes of davey and o'hara etc and they did hammer Down after all last year and ran galway very close 2 years ago in salthill.

If sligo play like they did for the last 30 minutes yesterday against galway, then they have every chance. The question is can they put two performances like that back to back???? personally i doubt it; but you never know

gucci

back to back maybe not, but the fact of the matter is they didnt require a super performance to beat roscommon yesterday. they played good honest football and came out on top all over the pitch but a performance like that against galway would need to be a level higher again to compete/beat them. sadly shows how many levels behind galway etc roscommon are. sligo are a long time in the hunt for a connaught title, would be great to see them do it but id be sceptical

kevmy

gucci wrote:

with the exception of the goal cregg's performance was very disappointing. his man johnny davey was bombing forward all the time and cregg who has great pace too couldnt/didnt keep with him, connellan who wouldnt be as fast (although still no lurker!) did bit better on him defensively when maughan switched cregg in to corner forward when basically taking him off would have been probably a better option at that stage of the game, but i guess that would have been a tough call on a guy who scored a great goal and maughan isnt renowned for making that decisive tough call during a match.

Didn't see all the game but I'd expect a young lad like him (19?) to hide a small bit in pressure situations but his goal was fantastic and he was Rossies best player by a mile in the U21 Connacht Final. For a lad just outta minor there is alot of pressure on him. At his age the only forward in Connacht as good as him is Pearse Hanley (Ballaghdereen/Mayo) and he won't be expected to carry the Mayo team any time soon.
Give him time, hope he keeps disciplined and support not criticse him and maybe in a couple of years he'll be ready. The only lad recently who played his way into a county team and became a star at 19 was the Gooch

aidan24326

Was expecting Ros to win this one, though in hindsight I'm not too sure why. Thought they'd have enough in the tank to see off Sligo, especially in Hyde Park.

From a Galway perspective I don't know what to make of it. Was kinda hoping to see an impressive display from Roscommon to set up a good Connaught final. I expect we'll beat Leitrim, probably not by much though.

Not saying I would take Sligo for granted at all, but they do have a very poor record against Galway down through the years, and I would have been more fearful of Roscommon, though I was obviously overrating the Rossies.

Sligo are due a win against Galway, no question about it, I don't think this will be the year it happens though. Anyhow there's the matter of beating Leitrim first, they're never easy opposition in Carrick and Galway would do well to afford them due respect.

gman100

I was at the game yesterday. Fair play to all the sligo lads, a great win.

However, i can't help but question some of the decisions made by the sligo manager, tommy breheny. For the entire game he played kelly, the smallest man on the field, on the full forward line. On numerous occasions long balls were played in and kelly was easily beaten each time by the ros defenders.

It was only with 25 minutes to go that Breheny put on Sweeney, a 6'3 player who was sligos best player in the league before getting injured. Sligo were down 5 points when Sweeney came on. He set up Curran, Davy and Breheny for scores and scored one himself.

The point here is that Sweeney is a big lad, Kelly is not. If long balls are going to be played in, why go with a small player whose overall contribution to the game was minimal?

Also, John McPartland was brought on in place of Marron. Both are very similar players, both lack that bit of pace. Why replace like with like?

Even though Sligo won the game, my praise goes to the sligo players, not to the Sligo manager.

gucci

a brother of john nolan, a roscommon panelist from the western gaels club was killed last night in a car accident. puts the roscommon result in perspective. RIP

rossie1977

kevmy; cathal cregg is a few years out of minor. He was on the senior team last year.

I notice you mention Pearse Hanley (another roscommon man btw, who wanted to play for roscommon and supported the rossies as a kid )

If donnie shine can make the step up to senior level for roscommon we could see a few fireworks in years to come

kevmy

rossie1977 wrote:

kevmy; cathal cregg is a few years out of minor. He was on the senior team last year.

Sorry thought he was on the victorious minor team last year that I never stop hearing about

rossie1977 wrote:

I notice you mention Pearse Hanley (another roscommon man btw, who wanted to play for roscommon and supported the rossies as a kid )

Well though we have him now and ye're not getting him back