Cork hang on to hold off late Roscommon surge and keep their summer alive

Irish Times

a day ago

All-Ireland SFC: Cork 0-19 Roscommon 0-17
It ended on a knife-edge. Needing just a draw to put them through,
Roscommon
were camped in the
Cork
half when the hooter sounded, scouting for a two-point shot. After the usual over-and-back Diarmuid Murtagh engineered a shaft of daylight outside the arc, but as soon as he put boot to ball Daniel O'Mahony executed a diving block. Seán Powter picked up the pieces and Cork's hearts slinked back down their throats.
It was a dramatic finish to a pulsating second half. Having led by four points at the break, Cork extended their lead to six midway through the second half. But Roscommon took over after that and Cork were pushed into the last ditch.
When Cork lost their footing at centrefield cracks started to appear in their defence and Micheál Aodh Martin in the Cork goal came to their rescue twice in the closing stages.
With 12 minutes to go Daire Cregg was put clean through with a raking diagonal pass, a goal at his mercy. Martin rushed from his line and deflected Cregg's shot, one-handed, from point-blank range.
READ MORE
The ball, though, carried on at a reduced rate of knots towards the Cork goal-line. The Cork full back Seán Brady and the Roscommon substitute Ciarán Lennon thundered towards the loose ball, and Brady just got there first. The difference was inches.
A few minutes later, Martin was called upon again when he burst through a crowded goalmouth to get his fists to a treacherous dropping ball. By then Cork were hanging by a thread.
In the end, the problem for Roscommon were two-pointers. They didn't even attempt one for an hour, but in the closing 10 minutes they tried four shots from outside the arc, none of which hit the target.
Cork will wonder how they nearly let it slip. For the guts of half an hour in the middle of the game they utterly dominated centrefield and ran at Roscommon in waves. Colm O'Callaghan and Ian Maguire were superb around the middle, Paul Walsh and Seán O'Donnell mopped up breaks, and even though Cork were getting very little from their inside forwards, they were picking off scores from outside.
But when Roscommon got their hands on a succession of Cork's restarts the tide turned. The outstanding Cregg kicked three second-half points to add to his two in the first half, Diarmuid Murtagh landed a couple of beauties and Cork went 15 excruciating minutes without a score. All bets were off.
Cork's Seán Brady tackles Ben O'Carroll of Roscommon during the game in Portlaoise. Photograph: Leah Scholes/Inpho
Cork's four-point lead at the break was at odds with the opening 25 minutes when neither team was able to assert control. Roscommon led by two points early on, but that advantage was wiped out by a two-pointer from Brian O'Driscoll, Cork's most bountiful source of shots from outside the arc all season.
The surface was greasy from downpours earlier in the afternoon and both teams were guilty of handling errors and debilitating turnovers. Cork, though, were more dangerous on the break, and though neither goalkeeper was forced into a save in the first half, Cork had three goal chances.
Two of them fell to a resurgent Maguire who fired over the bar twice from no more than 10 yards out. Seán McDonnell had a whiff of a goal chance too but eschewed the space in front of him took a handy point – the first of his three.
The sides were level four times in the first 24 minutes, but the impetus of the game changed when Cork got a grip on Roscommon's kick-outs. O'Callaghan and Maguire repeatedly got a fist to the ball and Cork were sharp on the breaks. Seán Walsh's direct running punched holes in the Roscommon defence and Cork were able to develop shooting opportunities.
In a nine-minute spell late in the first half Cork kicked five points without reply and led by 0-10 to 0-6 at the break. Roscommon made a bright start to the second period and cut Cork's lead in half within a couple of minutes. But then Cork settled again and surged again.
A run of four points without reply at the end of the second quarter, two of them by O'Callaghan, put Cork 0-17 to 0-11 in front and seemingly in control. All that changed, though. In the end, anything could have happened.
Having won just one competitive game since they beat Cork on March 1st, Roscommon's season is over. Having been beaten three times in the championship already, Cork will continue for another week at least. They will take something from this, even if a late-season transformation is surely out of the question.
CORK:
M A Martin; S Meehan, S Brady, M Shanley; B O'Driscoll (0-1-0), D O'Mahony, M Taylor; I Magure (0-0-2), C O'Callaghan (0-0-2); P Walsh (0-0-2), S Walsh, S McDonnell (0-0-3); M Cronin (0-0-5, 2f), B Hurley (0-0-1), C Óg Jones
Subs:
R Maguire for Meehan (h-t); E McSweeney (0-0-1) for S Walsh (42 mins); S Powter for P Walsh (55); Deane for Taylor (59); C O'Mahony (0-0-1) for Jones (61).
ROSCOMMON:
C Carroll (0-0-1,45); P Frost, B Stack, D Murray; R Daly, S Cunnane, S Lambe (0-0-1); E Nolan (0-0-1), E Smith (0-0-1); D Ruane (0-0-1), D Smith (0-0-1), D Cregg (0-0-5); D Murtagh (0-0-2), B O'Carroll (0-0-1), C Murtagh (0-0-1).
Subs:
C Neary for D Smith (50 mins); C McKeon (0-0-2) for Ruane (52); C Hand for Daly (54); C Lennon for O'Carroll (56); D Kenny for Lambe (66).
Referee:
M McNally (Monaghan).