Roscommon retain Division 3 status

The many uncertainties which occupied the minds of GAA followers of respective teams prior to last weekend"s final round of National Football League games were swept aside as we approached 4.30pm on a beautiful Easter Sunday evening. At Dr. Hyde Park, Down"s narrow win over hosts Roscommon was sufficient to propel them to the top of Division 3 after overnight leaders Tipperary lost at home to Longford. This sees the Mourne and Premier standard bearers now promoted to Division 2, while, despite that great win at Semple Stadium, it wasn"t sufficient to save Longford from demotion to Division 4. The Leinster men are accompanied by Limerick, who lost to Offaly in their last Division 3 Group clash at Tullamore and - due to inferior points difference with Roscommon, Cavan and Louth (all four teams finishing on 6 points) - make the dreaded drop. Despite that terrible 11-point mauling against Down in Round 6 at Newry, Offaly"s win over Limerick brought them to seven points on the table, and third place, on Sunday evening, and with all those critical results flowing into 'the Hyde', the final placings saw Roscommon eventually safe. But, having topped the table only a few short weeks ago, it was ultimately a tad too close for comfort as they finished in third last place, ahead of the Treatymen on that vital points difference (- 3 to - 11). With the major counter-attraction of the annual Easter Parade attracting a record attendance along Roscommon town"s thoroughfares, Sunday"s NFL tie at Dr. Hyde Park, notwithstanding brilliant sunshine and almost perfect conditions, drew a disappointing crowd of around 1,000, approximately half of those sporting the red and black Down colours. Still missing the injured quartet of Ambrose Rodgers, Liam Doyle, Kevin McKernan and team captain Dan Gordon, team manager Ross Carr, nevertheless, brought a strong team Westward, exactly as selected on the programme. Roscommon - already short Cathal Cregg, and with Ger Heneghan, Conor Devaney and Pat Connell having recently departing the panel - made two further alterations to their listed squad. Pádraig Duignan replaced Ronan Brady at corner-back, while Fintan Cregg came on at corner-forward in a series of moves which brought Gary Cox to centre-forward and placed Karol Mannion at midfield, where Michael Finneran didn"t start. Still smarting from that dreadful 8-point reverse away to Cavan last time out, Fergal O"Donnell and his fellow selectors were hoping for a much-improved showing against admittedly strong opposition in the Mourne side, and, as events unfolded, they would not be disappointed. Playing with advantage of the influential breeze, the Primrose and Blue went briskly about their business and, with full-forward Senan Kilbride having the beating of his direct opponent Aidan Carr, home supporters were encouraged by what they saw. The St. Brigid"s No. 14 has his team"s opening point within one minute of play after an impressive bout of interpassing, emulating this from a free two minutes later, punishing a foul on himself. Corner-forward Paul McCumiskey (free) opened the Down account (5th minute), and it took some good Ros" defence to counteract further fast-moving Down raids. The Ulster side employed a fast, short-passing playing policy, which was cutting little ice against a defensive set-up admirably led by the three David"s across the Ros" half-back line - Casey, Flynn (in particular) and Keenan. Senan Kilbride (free) penalised defensive over-carrying (12th minute), but Down"s Benny Coulter struck a lightning point from play four minutes later. Midfielder Karol Mannion lofted over a typical long range effort from 45 metres in a spirited response which had the home support on their feet, and while an improving Down drew level with a McCumiskey (totally unmarked) point, and a similar effort from attacking corner-back Ciaran McGovern. Roscommon responded in kind with a terrific brace of points from play courtesy of Senan Kilbride (great move started by David O"Gara) and wing-back David Keenan (set up by Gary Cox and O"Gara again). Goalkeeper Geoffrey Claffey brought off a smashing save from the ever-predatorial Benny Coulter, but Down equalised once more thanks to Paul McCumiskey (free) and wing forward speed-merchant Daniel Hughes. As half-time approached, a Gary Cox foul paved the way for Senan Kilbride to point the resultant free bringing his first-half points total to five, but while this gave the home team an 0-7 to 0-6 interval advantage in a half where they had never conceded the lead, a trio of scorable wides in the concluding stages of the half proved very costly as the Ros" men now faced the wind. The Mourne side were finding Roscommon doughty opponents in the extreme in the encounter to date, but within two minutes of the restart, an Aidan Carr converted '45' and a Benny Coulter point - the ball having broken favourably to the Mayobridge clubman - had the visitors in front, for the first time, in the 38th minute. Roscommon had a further trio of eminently scorable efforts driven frustratingly wide of the target in a three-minute sequence resemblant of that costly cameo before the short whistle. This period of profligacy would, arguably, later cost them the match. It, conversely, seemed to give renewed impetus to Down, as sub John Fegan and a fine effort from centre-forward John Boyle put their team 0-10 to 0-7 in front 10 minutes in. A highly charged Roscommon, however, and in a display, which was reminiscent of the sparkling form shown in earlier games of the series (first half v Offaly and the Drogheda encounter v Louth), never allowed the potentially dangerous Down attack too much leeway, and in a sequence of play between the 46th and 52nd minutes, edged their opponents 0-3 to 0-2 on the score-board, thanks to splendid point taking from Gary Cox, Seanie McDermott and the indefatigable Brian Higgins, with Hughes and McCumiskey on target for the North men. And so that 2-point margin would remain between the combatants. Roared on by their respective partisans, both sides enjoyed spells of ascendancy. Saul"s Stephen Kearney and another McCumiskey free pushed Down four points to the good, but Donal Shine (free and '45') negatived these scores. Down battled back with Aidan Carr storming upfield for a fine score, with Daniel Hughes having his third from play for the afternoon to open up a 4-point gap again with eight minutes of normal time remaining. Roscommon were about to launch another of their many superb efforts to get something from this match, and to the resounding cheers of their loyal supporters, made light of adversarial wind conditions to cut the margin to a minimum. Donal Shine was spot-on from a brace of frees, and the Clann na nGael sharpshooter also had a big say in the next score when his spot-on pass found sub Kevin Higgins for a superlative point. Ros" had, minutes earlier, lost full-back John Nolan (straight red) for an off-the-ball incident and, three minutes into added-on time, Down made sure of the points, and the table-top position, when left-half back Declan Rooney was on-target to give his team two points to spare (0-17 to 0-15) at referee Robert O"Donnell"s long whistle. While the Mournemen emerged narrow winners on the day, this tremendous display of heart and determination ticked many of the right boxes for Fergal O"Donnell"s charges as they now look forward to that big Connacht SFC Quarter-Final v Leitrim on 31st May. Their League campaign, taken in its entirety, may have produced a number of 'curate"s egg' displays, but they certainly kept a best wine until last, coming within an ace of claiming a major scalp on Sunday. With survival in the Group also of paramount importance, it will be back to the training field with renewed vigour. There were many fine Roscommon displays on Sunday. Geoffrey Claffey again kept his citadel intact, with John Nolan, David Casey, David Flynn and David Keenan sterling defenders. Brian Higgins worked hard at midfield, in a sector where Karol Mannion and sub. Michael Finneran also did well, with Senan Kilbride, Donal Shine (second half) and Sean McDermott prominent in attack. SCORERS - Down: P McCumiskey 0-4 (2f); D Hughes 0-3; A Carr 0-3 (1f, 0-1 '45'); B Coulter 0-2; C McGovern, J Fegan, J Boyle, S Kearney, D Rooney 0-1 each. Roscommon: S Kilbride 0-5 (3f); D Shine 0-4 (3f, 0-1 '45'); K Mannion, D Keenan, G Cox, B Higgins, S McDermott, K Higgins 0-1 each. DOWN: Brendan McVeigh; Ciarán McGovern, Aidan Carr, Luke Howard; Damian Rafferty, Conor Garvey, Declan Rooney; Peter Fitzpatrick, Stephen Kearney; Brendan McArdle, John Boyle, Daniel Hughes; Brendan Coulter, Ronan Murtagh, Paul McGuinness. Subs: John Fegan for McArdle (15), Paul Murphy for Fitzpatrick (48), Conor Maginn for Murtagh (53), Jamie O"Reilly for Boyle (70). ROSCOMMON: Geoffrey Claffey, Peter Domican, John Nolan, Pádraig Duignan, David Casey, David Flynn, David Keenan, Brian Higgins, Karol Mannion, David O"Gara, Gary Cox (Captain), Seán McDermott, Fintan Cregg, Senan Kilbride, Donal Shine. Subs: Michael Finneran for O"Gara (46), Kevin Higgins for Cox (65), Seán Purcell for Casey (69). REFEREE: Robert O"Donnell (Donegal).