OAK LEAF TAKE A STROLL
Harte’s Derry secure place in final but little heart shown in Rossies clash
IT can be taken as a measure of the Allianz Football League’s snoozy final round that this was perceived to be a fixture where there was something at stake at both ends of the table.
Derry needing to avoid defeat to reach their first Division 1 final in 10 years, Roscommon needing to win and a starting Kerry team that was Cliffordless to do them a favour to help them stay up.
Don King, in his loud-mouthed prime, would have struggled to sell that as a possibility.
And so we got what we came for, confirmation of Derry’s place in the final and a week of intrigue as to how far Mickey Harte will push the boat out against Dublin this Sunday, although the suspicion is quite a bit.
It is a final that they will relish, not least given that the All-Ireland champions were the only ones thus far to land a punch on them on an evening when Harte held back some of his big dogs, and he may view this as an opportunity to get a true measure of where they are at.
Meanwhile, Roscommon drop back into Division 2 with the comfort of men who have made that parachute jump a hundred times before.
Maybe a hundred might be stretching it, but a fourth relegation in eight seasons is that not far off in Allianz League years.
After that, like so much of this spring, the temptation is to usher everyone along on their way with the customary advice that there is nothing to see here. There really wasn’t.
That was not to say that it did not entertain, but it was mainly light entertainment.
Roscommon made a fight of it to the degree that they stayed in this game for 41 minutes, a three-point scoring burst — two Diarmuid Murtagh points sandwiching another from Enda Smith — to draw level at 1-8 apiece.
In the remaining 32 minutes (including stoppage time), they were outscored by 1-11 to 0-1. Enough said.
Put simply, when Derry decided to stir themselves, the reality that these teams are worlds apart rather than just a division apart revealed itself.
As ever, Conor Glass was the game’s dominant figure, but this was another day that offered hard evidence that Mickey Harte is creating a panel with championship winning depth.
In the 12 games (including the McKenna Cup) he has been in charge, he has used 37 players but what is even more impressive is the impact that he is getting from what may have been regarded as fringe players.
Lachlann Murray is one such player, a graduate from the 2020 minors who inevitably at the start looked like the boy he was in a man’s world, but he loomed large over this contest.
He finished with 1-4, including a couple of booming first half points and an outrageous solo goal seven minutes from the end, racing along the endline before firing to the net.
Derry’s overdependence on Shane McGuigan’s scoring boots has been a weakness that had become impossible to hide, or at least until this season.
Yesterday, of the 2-19 they scored, 2-18 came from play with 10 different scorers, but critically eight out of those 10 were designated forwards.
As for Roscommon, to be fair they came with some intent, the care they took of the ball in the opening play extended to three
minutes and 10 seconds of keep ball.
At the end of it, Enda Smith, taking a return pass from Eoin McCormack, and blazed over a clear goal chance.
While both teams played to a well rehearsed structure, their hearts were not in it. In the space of 30 seconds, in what felt like some end of league exchange of gifts, madness broke out.
In the 10th minute, Roscommon goalkeeper Conor Carroll sent his short kick-out into the hands of Derry’s Conor McGuckan, who passed to Declan Cassidy for the easiest of goals.
In a reminder that the goalkeeping union has its own benevolence fund, from the resultant kick-out Derry’s Odhran Lynch on the edge of his own square misjudged a hopping ball and it went straight into his net.
And so this mad-cap contest rolled on, Derry playing with the freedom of a team that knew they could not lose even if they did, creating the better chances but devoid of the ruthlessness to take full advantage, which was the main reason why they led by just three (1-8 to 1-5) at the break.
In reality, though, the only true discomfort which Derry felt came inside the opening eight minutes, when Gareth McKinless was forced to leave the pitch with what was later revealed to be a broken nose.
It will rule the Derry defender out of next week’s final, but Harte hinted post match that he may be back sooner rather than later.
‘With things people put on it depends on how much of a chance the person wants to take, maybe he can play in the not too distant future but I will leave that in the hands of the medics. You never know what can happen,’ suggested Harte.
DERRY: O Lynch; C McCluskey, C McKaigue, D Baker; G McKinless (B Rogers, 8), E McEvoy, C Doherty (S Downey, 57); C Glass, D Gilmore; E Doherty, D Cassidy (C McFaul, HT), P Cassidy; C McGuckin (N Toner, HT), S McGuigan, L Murray (C Murphy, 66) Scorers: L Murray 1-4, E Doherty, S McGuigan (1f) 0-4 each, P Cassidy 0-2 (1f), D Cassidy 1-0, C Glass, E McEvoy, N Toner, C Murphy, C McFaul 0-1 each. ROSCOMMON: C Carroll; D Murray, B Stack, P Gavin; N Daly, N Higgins (C Hussey, 54), E McCormack; E Smith, U Harney (C Cox, 64); D Ruane, R Fallon (C Lennon, 64), R Daly; D Cregg (C Connolly, 50), D Murtagh, D Smith (J Fitzpatrick, 54) Scorers: D Murtagh 0-3 (2f), D Smith 1-0, E Smith 0-2, D Cregg (1f), E McCormack, N Daly, C Cox 0-1 each. Referee: D Gough (Meath)