Despite kicking off this year’s Connacht U-20 football championship with three ties, Roscommon is primed for next Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final confrontation against Tyrone. This follows their spectacular victory against Galway at Castlebar, characterised by second-half goals from Niall O’Donnell, Shane McGinley, and Ryan Dowling.
Roscommon began the fixture in top form, accumulating four points from their initial five possessions. Conversely, Galway couldn’t capitalise on their opening five possessions, which all culminated in turnovers. Whilst Galway managed to balance the game later on, with Jack Mullen’s two outstanding points into the wind standing out, they were leading by two points, with the wind expected to favour them post-break.
However, the game took a turn as McGinley assisted O’Donnell to score the first goal of the match. Game-changer Ethan O’Reilly came off the bench and immediately set up Rob Heneghan and McGinley to score successively. While Galway retaliated with impressive scores in the latter half, with Mullen, Fionn Mac Donnacha, and Matthew Thompson all standing out, they never managed to regain the lead. The tide turned against them yet again as Conor Ryan and Conor Harley paired up to assist McGinley’s 46th-minute goal.
Ryan Dowling, introduced off the bench, promptly kicked two points extending the lead to six, electrifying the already adrenaline-fuelled match. Galway managed to score three consecutive points, setting up a nail-biting finish. Nevertheless, their offensive strategy backfired when Rob Heneghan gathered a turnover on Roscommon’s 45-metre line which resulted in McGinley’s assist for Dowling’s decisive goal.
The lineup for Roscommon included S Allen, E Kerins, J Connolly, E Carthy, S Lambe (who scored 0-1), D Casey, J McGreal, C Harley, C Ryan, R Hester (scoring 0-1), D Hagney, R Heneghan (on the scoresheet with 0-1), S McGinley (who achieved a fantastic 1-6, including three frees and one mark), N O’Donnell (contributing 1-1 to the team’s score) and B Nugent (adding 0-1, one mark). The substitutions saw E O’Reilly replacing McGreal at half-time, R Dowling (who added 1-2) replaced Hagney after 46 minutes, O O’Flaherty took over from Harley after 51 minutes, S Walsh stepped in for O’Donnell at 57 minutes, and R Carthy took Hester’s position at 60 minutes.
The Galway team enlisted E McGrath, D Costello, B Noone, S Canavan, M Mannion (who clocked up 0-1), J Lonergan, J Folan, S McGlinchey (also on the board with 0-1), C Heneghan, C Mulhern, M Thompson (who scored a vital 0-4, two of which were frees), C Murphy, J Mullen (adding another 0-4), F Mac Donnacha (securing 0-3, one being a mark), C Costello (who had 0-3, one free). Subs introduced included P Godwin swapped in for Noone temporarily (from 28-29), D Kilcommons replaced Heneghan at half-time, R Coen (scoring 0-1) came on in place of Folan at 41 minutes, R Colleran took C Costello’s slot temporarily from 46-47 minutes, L O’Connor came on for Mannion at 49 minutes, R Colleran took over from Murphy after 54 minutes, and N Mannion replaced D Costello after 60 minutes. The referee overseeing the match was L Devenney from Mayo.