Slow Rossie starts concern McStay despite victory

ROSCOMMON manager Kevin McStay has warned his men can’t keep pushing their luck after staging another late rescue job in Semple Stadium.

They came from four points down in stoppage time on the opening weekend to salvage a draw against Meath, but they went one better in Thurles yesterday.

This time they were six points adrift five minutes from the end of regular time but a goal from Diarmuid Murtagh gave them hope and they then pushed on to break Tipperary hearts and snatch the win.

“If we keep giving the ball away 30 times a match, it’s so hard to build a framework for success or a foundation for victory because we’re not paying enough attention to it and we’re not giving enough respect to the ball,” said McStay.

“We’re not the size of a team that wins every kick-out after that as you can see. But we adjusted. We fought awful hard on the break and that was the bit that I really questioned them on at half-time.

“I just didn’t see that aggression on the break but for the last 15 minutes, it was the human condition, once you get a bit of momentum everybody wants to go after it. I’m very pleased with that but it won’t be papering over the cracks.”

Tipperary, having defeated Cork in their opening game, again showed a good eye for goal and were well worth their 1-6 to 0-6 interval lead, with Conor Sweeney converting a 20th-minute penalty.

Michael Quinlivan rattled the crossbar with a rasping shot just 15 seconds after the restart but the reprieve was brief for Roscommon and a second penalty from Sweeney saw Tipp lead by double scores, 2-8 to 0-7, after 40 minutes.

A wonderful goal by Quinlivan when he soloed through several tackles at speed left Tipp with a 3-9 to 0-12 advantage after 65 minutes.

But Roscommon hit back and after Murtagh’s goal helped them level, late points from captain Conor Devaney and last week’s draw hero Donie Smith sealed the deal and stunned Tipp.

“It was a cracking game and there were lots of chances but I thought we weren’t clinical enough up front,” said Tipperary manager Liam Kearns.

“It’s a harsh lesson for my boys but they’ll learn from it and we’ll go again.

“We’ve played the two promotion favourites now, Cork and Roscommon and we’ve been good enough to give them plenty to think about. We’d be happy that we’ll hold our own in the division and that’s what we intended to do coming up here.”