GAA Digest: Galway wins easy over Roscommon

Louth wins, Donegal wins, Longford wins, Limerick wins and GAA shorts

Galway set their stall out for the summer with a convincing 3-15 to 0-10 win over a poor Roscommon side in their Connacht championship opener at Dr. Hyde Park on Sunday.

The Tribesmen were full value for their 14-point win, and manager Alan Mulholland was delighted with their direct style of football.

“If you look through the scores we got, most of them probably would have come from a direct ball from the full-forward line. That is what we are trying to do,” the Galway boss told RTE afterwards.

“To be honest a lot of the teams are trying to do that but it is difficult when teams are trying to put three or four in front of that full-back line.

“We want to do that. If we are able, we will try to do it and if the other teams do not let us do it, we have to find a plan B.”

Michael Meehan and Padraig Joyce both made their championship comebacks as substitutes after recent injuries, another pleasing factor for Mulholland.

“We were struggling a bit in the middle third of the game and the older and experienced guys settled us down a bit, like Michael Meehan and Padraig Joyce. That was great for us to have those guys on the bench,” he added.

“We’ve done well today but Sligo in the semis are going to be a totally different opposition.”

Midfielder Joe Bergin also praised Meehan afterwards. Bergin said, “Nine out of 10 guys would have thrown their hats at it, between the ankle, the shoulder and all the rest.

“But it shows the resolve of this guy -- he loves football, he loves Galway and you could hear the cheer from the crowd when he came on.”

A realistic Roscommon manager Des Newton admitted to his team’s problems after their annihilation.
Newton said, “I was surprised by the performance. Overall we did not show the desire required to make a game of it today.

“Galway showed all of the desire out there. But I am not going to blame any of the players in the dressingroom.

“They have all given me everything over the last six months and sometimes you have days like this.
“I hold my hand up and take responsibility for it. We’ll have a look at our role in the management and selection of the team and so on.”

The qualifiers are next for Roscommon. Newton added, “There has been lots of other teams that have taken beatings just as bad as this and have come from them. What we do next is the most important thing now.”

Louth Wins

LOUTH captain Paddy Keenan admitted his team were lucky to beat Westmeath in such dramatic fashion in Navan on Sunday when a last gasp Danny O’Connor goal five minutes into added time secured a narrow 2-9 to 0-14 win.

“The second half was pretty bad from our point of view, and we just got out of jail there really,” said Keenan after his team had booked a Leinster quarterfinal date with Dublin.

“It’s not too often that Louth come out of a tight game like that with a last-minute goal or point to win a game. We’ll take it but you can’t paper over the cracks; there were an awful lot of things we did wrong and an awful lot of things we’ve to work on, so we’ll not get too carried away.”

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Nster.com