Roscommon are Cadbury Connacht U21FC champions after beating Sligo by 1-13 to 0-8 at Dr Hyde Park this evening.

Five points from Man of the match Donie Smith fired the winners - who had the aid of a strong breeze in the first half - into an unassailable 0-9 to 0-2 interval lead.

Finbarr Cregg opened the scoring with a point for the Rossies but Brian Egan had the sides level as early scores proved hard to come by. Eventually, the Primrose & Blue found their rhythm…

Cian Connolly, Conor Daly and Smith (3) got the next five scores as the hosts moved into a commanding five-point lead, 0-6 to 0-1. The Rossies continued to dominate and further points from Scott Oates and Smith (2) virtually finished the match as a contest before we had even reached the break, 0-9 to 0-1.

Pat Hughes pulled back a late point for the Yeats County before the short whistle, but they were seven adrift at the turnaround.

Egan knocked over a brace after Roscommon had extended their advantage through Colin Compton upon the resumption and the visitors continued to battle, closing to within five points ten minutes into the second half, with David Maye on target, 0-10 to 0-5. But the impressive Smith replied for the winners.

The tide swung decisively back in Roscommon's favour when they were awarded a penalty at the three-quarters stage and Smith despatched the ball calmly to the back of the net to bring his own tally to 1-6. Roscommon now led by nine points, 1-11 to 0-5.

Again, Sligo rallied with a brace of points but they still trailed by seven with nine minutes remaining. Clearly, they needed a goal…

Compton added to the home team's tally and Oates made it 1-13 to 0-7. Sligo kept going to the end and got the last point on the stroke of full time but their race was run...

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