Boys gave it their all in horrible conditions, but it was to be Roscommon’s day - Fallon
THERE was to be no Christmas miracle for Sligo at the Connacht GAA Centre as a late, late bid to snatch the provincial title fell short.
1-2 in the closing minutes gave Sligo a glimmer of hope, but Roscommon held out for a deserved three-point win.
Offering his assessment of his side’s performance in the wind and rain, soaked and shivering Sligo boss Daragh Fallon was making no excuses as his charges’ brave effort ended without silverware.
“It’s silent,” he said of the dressing room he emerged from. “It’s a miserable dressing room for sure, it’s to be expected.”
Acknowledging the impact of the conditions as well as praising the effort of his players, the St Molaise Gaels club man reflected on Sligo’s failure to register a score for some 55 minutes.
“It was a horrible night,” he said. “Probably going in at half-time, four points, we were delighted, we thought the second half would be much different and we’d be able to create a few more chances but we just didn’t manage do it. I can’t understand it, we just couldn’t finish today but a horrible night, it’s not much of a night for football. At half-time, we’d to take off two players at the start of the second half, they were just frozen solid. But it’s the same for both teams.”
Many observers, tuned in to the live stream of the match on Connacht GAA’s website with the game taking place behind closed doors, would have agreed with the Sligo boss that the Yeats County were in an encouraging position at the break. Four points down, with a significant wind advantage to come, appeared to be a decent platform from which to win a first Minor title for the county since 1968.
“Carrying ball into the wind is probably a wee bit easier, the rain and the wind came down in the second half, we probably would have liked to have sprayed the ball a little bit more, get a kickpass game going,” Fallon said of the second period.
“I think it was the final third, we just couldn’t pull it together. Defending-wise, I thought the boys were excellent, I thought some of the tackling intensity was really good, but it was just in the last third, we just couldn’t get a return and that’s probably the disappointing thing I would say, just dropping balls short, but again lads’ legs, they’re feeling cold and I’m shivering here speaking so I’d say it was worse for the lads out on the field.
“1-2 isn’t going to be enough to win any game, regardless of conditions I probably would have expected a return of 10 or 11 points, that was the aim. It was an end to a busy week, I have to pay credit to Connacht GAA for actually getting the game played today because if it wasn’t played today, who knows when it would have been played so for all those here in Connacht who scrambled to get the game played at such short notice, I think everybody really appreciates it. I think for the boys, it didn’t matter; we would have played Christmas Day if we had to so that piece doesn’t really matter. But 1-2 is not enough, even though I know the final scoreline wasn’t huge either but we’re a team who can get a return when we go up the pitch but we just didn’t get a return today for whatever reason.”
Even accounting for their lack of scores, Sligo still only trailed by four points midway through the second half before Roscommon struck for their goal, which was arguably the game’s decisive score. However, Sligo battled commendably even when things were clearly not going as they had planned.
“No, but it’s a completely different day, the conditions were a lot different,” Fallon responded when asked if he felt his team got to the level of performance they produced in that superb win over Mayo six days previously.
“I think that the boys really did try today, you could see them working but sometimes when the body is cold it doesn’t respond the way you want it to respond and credit to Roscommon, they deserved
the win today, they were more clinical than we were in front of goals, even in the second half against the breeze they created the goal chance. I think if you managed to not concede a goal today you’d have won the game, but we conceded one in the second half which was a tough time to concede it.
“But my hats off to them, it was great for both Sligo and Roscommon to be in it but they deserve their win today.”