Dressing room reaction Paul Hickey John Maughan’s disappointment at the end of last Sunday’s game was as extreme as it was sincere. The Mayo man felt that his young charges should have got a result from the game and he was reluctant to put the match down as ‘an experience’. ‘I don’t think that that was the way to lose a game. We had several opportunities in both halves where we should have taken our scores. We gave away a soft goal on a cheap turnover and we were punished. If you want to say that it was an experience then maybe it was, but I’m very disappointed,’ he said. ‘We were very disappointed to concede four points on the trot before half-time and to be four down at the break as a result. We came back at them in the second half and had the margin down to two. After Daniel Goulding’s goal we got it back to three points but we didn’t create the goal chance that we needed. The goal killed it (the game)’. Maughan admitted that before the game he didn’t know what to expect of Cork, and he noted that detected that his opposite number Conor Counihan didn’t know what to expect of the Rebels either! ‘Coming here I didn’t really know what to expect from Cork – I think they didn’t know what to expect from themselves. Cork looked rusty and they were certainly stale. They didn’t have the benefit of a couple of matches under their belts and that told in their performance. Yet we let them go away with two points’. Maughan pointed to a lack of composure up front and also commented that Roscommon conceded too many frees. ‘We conceded a lot of fouls and perhaps that led to a lack of creativity. We had some glorious opportunities to take scores and we didn’t do the business’. Did he resent having to play Cork when Meath and Dublin were awarded the points? ‘We always want to play football matches but, as I’ve said before, the decision (to award points to Meath and Dublin) was fundamentally flawed. I’m not having a pop at the GAA but the games should have been played. The decision that the Central Competitions Control Committee arrived at was unprecedented, and what rubbed salt into open wounds was the four hundred euro fine. ‘Roscommon’s hurling management was fined €400 for a division three hurling game in Omagh last year where the two selectors stood beside the manager during the game. There were probably about 20 paying supporters at that game and some guy in the stand, who’d probably got in for nothing, decided to fine the Roscommon County Board €400. ‘How does that indiscretion equate with the non-fulfilling of fixtures? That’s a farce – the association makes a bloody joke of itself with decisions like that’. The Roscommon manager is optimistic that he and his team will retain division two status, however, and he was pleased with some aspects of his team’s performance. ‘There were some positives though: Johnny Dunning was marvellous at full-forward and I think Enda Kenny is settling into his role at centre half-back. Mark O’Carroll and Karol Mannion were very good in midfield. Ours is a young, young, team and it’ll benefit from playing against the likes of Nicholas Murphy. ‘We’ve got to take our chances in this league, but I think we’re good enough to survive.’
This Week’s Digital Edition
