Roscommon have little to fear as they face Mayo
IT’S rare that I go to Markievicz Park to watch an intercounty game as a neutral but I joined 10,563 other football followers last Saturday night for the much awaited clash of Donegal and Galway.
However, it didn’t end up the contest expected, and ended up as the ‘Massacre in Markievicz’ for Donegal.
Donegal fans have had more than most to shout about over the last six years, however many of those fans were heading for the exit as early as ten minutes into the second half.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I felt Kevin Walsh was better as a manager going into games as the under- dog and that proved to be the case again last weekend when his side responded in the best possible way with a phenomenal performance all over the pitch.
Galway showed everything in Markievicz that they didn’t show in Salthill against Roscommon a couple of weeks ago.
This was an excellently executed performance from start to finish.
They displayed a physicality that wasn’t evident against the Rossies in addition to a no nonsense direct at the goals style of attacking play, taking on their man every time creating and scoring a number of excellently finished goals.
This performance proved that they took Roscommon for granted in the Connacht Final as the Galway players should have another Connacht medal in their pockets, similar to the Sligo players in 2010.
If this was Galway’s best performance of the year, or indeed Kevin Walsh’s tenure it corresponded with the worst Donegal performance since the all-Ireland semi-final of 2013 when Mayo put up the same score line of 4.17 against them, this game was over at half time as Donegal looked a very tired dejected side.
Galway’s platform was built at midfield where they totally dominated and controlled the middle third.
Donegal pushed up hard on the Galway kick-out which actually worked in Galway’s favour as they were forced to go long and when they won possession they got the ball forward at serious pace into the danger area before Donegal had a chance to get their defensive setup in place.
The prize for Galway is a Croke Park fixture against Kerry next weekend, not the one that they would have handpicked if given the choice.
However this may be just the game to get after a performance like last Saturday night, where once again they are going in as underdogs and really have nothing to lose in a game that Kerry will be expected to win.
If Galway are to win they will need to have a plan to stop the Kerry inside line and if they can do that they have a real chance if they show the same attributes as they showed against Donegal.
For Kevin Walsh who had many memorable games as Sligo manager at Markievicz Park particularly the Mayo and Galway defeats in 2010 I feel this one probably trumps them such was the performance together with the fact that he was managing his home county.
Unfortunately for former Sligo player Brendan Kilcoyne, now part of the Donegal management team this will be a game he will want to forget in what was an unhappy homecoming for him.
In the other big game of the weekend Mayo once again qualified for another quarter final with a one point extra-time win over Cork.
This was a brilliant game of football with Mayo producing an excellent score to chance ratio.
Stephen Rochford will be happy that his team keep responding in difficult situations to get the last number of games over the line with a never say die attitude and are now back in Croke Park where Roscommon stands in their way of another semi-final.
Considering their familiarity this is a game that Roscommon may have preferred not to get, or is it?
Maybe this is exactly the game for them, as the current Connacht Champions should have no inferiority complexes as Mayo while grinding out victories are far from setting the world on fire.
Now throw in to the mix, the much maligned (up to the Connacht final) Mayo men who are managing Roscommon this game becomes intriguing where I give Roscommon a real chance such is the intimate knowledge that
McStay and McHale would have on the Mayo players with McHale in particular having worked the club scene locally.
I felt Roscommon in the Connacht Final played as well as they could play but they will need to at the least reproduce that form if they are to get a result in Croke Park.
I feel they should take real heart from some of Mayo’s scratchy performances where lesser teams such as Derry, Clare and Cork last week have really tested them and shows that there is nothing to fear.