Weather promised very poor tomorrow and it will surely be a low scoring affair. You'd have to fancy Roscommon's bench to ne the deciding factor if its a close encounter.

Better performance from Ross u20s last night compared to recent weeks. One obvious thing last night was the lack of height in the roscommon side and it will be a huge factor later in the spring with the matches still being played on slower pitches unlike last year where they've able to bypass midfield on summer dry ground.

The kickouts were an issue also last night but tbf to the keeper he pulled off 3 great saves as did the Mayo keeper. Big crowd at the match also. Mayo will also have their seniors to come back whole Ross were only missing one of theirs. It will be a Galway/Mayo title this year for sure.

SmokieRoss (Roscommon) - Posts: 279 - 19/02/2022 20:47:39    2401164

Yondu (UK) - Posts: 845 - 19/02/2022 21:29:11    2401172

The_analyser (Roscommon) - Posts: 4013 - 19/02/2022 22:00:21    2401177

endgame (Roscommon) - Posts: 2364 - 19/02/2022 22:00:22    2401178

Patchin (Clare) - Posts: 42 - 19/02/2022 22:05:12    2401179

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11536 - 20/02/2022 08:45:38    2401187

Yondu (UK) - Posts: 845 - 20/02/2022 10:46:24    2401212

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11536 - 20/02/2022 12:00:54    2401242

The weather should even things up a bit

Patchin (Clare) - Posts: 42 - 20/02/2022 13:38:23    2401273

Both teams played better against the wind

Patchin (Clare) - Posts: 42 - 20/02/2022 15:52:53    2401321

Strange match in hyde where both teams were not able to break down their opponents with the breeze and neither changed their approach to do so. After the shadow boxing of the first two rounds fitness levels and squad depths have gone up a level or two.

At half time Ross probably would have taken a draw but with 15 minutes left and 3 pts up you'd have to say it's a point dropped.

Clare v Derry next weekend will be a defining match for both. Don't rule out a draw either. Ross won't get anything easy in Newry who will be have some confidence after getting a draw in Navan ableit not scoring in second half. Galway should have plenty for Cork and will win their match in hand v Offaly so picture should be somewhat clearer next weekend. Ross have to win 3 of their last 4 to get promoted.

Unfortunately for the u20s the loss of last years players namely Ruairi Fallon to rugby, Ronan Garvan to a cruciate from last years competition amd Darragh Heneghan broken collar bone will be a huge loss and severely weaken their chances v Sligo. Also what is now becoming a serious issue for Roscommon at all ages are goalkeepers who are in short supply.

SmokieRoss (Roscommon) - Posts: 279 - 20/02/2022 17:36:20    2401353

Only positive to take out of that game is we remain undefeated.

Not sure why the ref needed two pitch inspections, it was fine. What wasn't fine was the strong and freezing cold wind that destroyed the game as a contest. A pure dog fight of a match.

Can make a case that we dropped the point today due to our flat performance in the 1st half or the final ten minutes of the game when we didn't have the street smarts to close the game out at 9-6. Going down to 14 men for that final 10 minutes was Clares way back into the game and we helped them also with our poor decision making. We still should have got a point or goal to win with the last kick of the match and the ref ignored a clear foul which would have been a tap over free. Clare however deserved their draw

Derry, Galway will be the clear favourites for promotion now and its a strong possibility that we will do battle with Clare again next year in Div 2.

The_analyser (Roscommon) - Posts: 4013 - 20/02/2022 17:51:14    2401360

kiloughter (Galway) - Posts: 1973 - 20/02/2022 17:53:08    2401362

I wasn't at the Hyde today. Who played well for Roscommon.

endgame (Roscommon) - Posts: 2364 - 20/02/2022 18:25:14    2401376

First things first well done to the groundsmen at the Hyde. The pitch looked in great nick for the time of year and it didn't appear to dig up as the match wore on. Very disappointing performance from Roscommon in general today especially the first half. Conditions obviously made it difficult but I don't understand why we didn't run at them in the first half like we did in parts of the second half especially when we had the wind on our backs. Seemed very laboured with our build up and some decision making poor again. I thought Cox was poor enough today. Donie needs to take all the frees in front of goal and on the right. Feel he would have converted Cox's chance in the second half. Thought the black card a little harsh too but maybe that was more down to seeing how the Longford official let a lot go for Clare and was very quick to penalise us for any attempt to tackle. Young Heneghan done well today as did Stack, Donie, McCormack and Enda. Midfield had some good moments but Clare won a lot of the breaks especially early on. Defence in general was quite solid. Lavin pulled off an excellent save and was solid throughout. Niall Daly had a quieter game than usual but did nothing wrong. Finally Niall Higgins from Elphin looked very impressive when he came in also. Lots of energy and pace and looked at ease at this level. We just seemed lethargic from midfield up. Anyway onwards and upwards hopefully for next weekend where we'll need to improve to get anything out of Newry.

ComainRos (Roscommon) - Posts: 148 - 20/02/2022 19:26:26    2401409

CartaDubh (Clare) - Posts: 57 - 20/02/2022 19:28:40    2401411

Yondu (UK) - Posts: 845 - 20/02/2022 19:39:09    2401417

The_analyser (Roscommon) - Posts: 4013 - 20/02/2022 19:43:33    2401420

How we got anything out of that game is beyond me. Firstly I think we didn't give clare the respect they deserve.
Again we started poorly this need to be addressed at a coaching level. We were so complacent it was shocking. It wasn't till the 33 min of the first half that we got our tempo up.
Our ability to deal with the scenarios in front of us was poor, we allowed our frustration with clares defence to multiply our poor decision. We had plenty of experience today I each line and they should have the game knowhow to problem solve against a blanket defence.
In the second half our workrate cannot be faulted but only through some poor clare shooting and clare not committing to a consistent push on our kickouts did we get a draw.
On this effort I would be worried heading to Newry with the kilcoo lads back and we will have to come up 3 or 4 notches to trouble derry and Galway.
Both Cork and Meath were patchy performances so
Maybe another year in Div 2 is not the worst thing.

Jonnycee (Longford) - Posts: 187 - 20/02/2022 20:06:02    2401437

kiloughter (Galway) - Posts: 1973 - 21/02/2022 08:32:34    2401482