NFL Division 4 2011

[Shamrock Shore]

No. Crokes won't release Kavanagh. Which, well, whatever.

I'd have to ask the auld lad when Longford last beat Roscommon. I dont recall a win in the 80s, 90s, 00s. I'm sure there's a win there somewhere before then.

Sunday won't turn the history books on its head.

[stevecw]

Shaping up to be a pretty good division this year. Rossies, Fermanagh, Longford & Clare should all be fancied to be in with a shout of promotion. Possibly Wicklow too.

As for us in Carlow well it is the usual start of every year, beginning with about half of last years team missing for various reasons. Only good thing is all the good young players who got us to Leinster minor final in 07 & lost by a pt as 21's in last years Leinster semi v the eventual AI winners Dublin make up most of this years panel. They have the talent, but are very young as seniors.

O'Byrne cup didn't tell much as we bet Kilkenny by 20 pts and then lost to UCD while kicking a crazy amount of wides. Were missing a load of players too as due to the age profile of our squad a lot were playing for their college sides instead.

Big one to start with on Sunday, home to Wicklow. Due to the whole Thos Walsh thing, it has turned Wicklow into the team we want to beat the most for last couple of years.
Walsh will start but at full forward, have 21 yo Brendan Murphy and 18 yo Daragh Foley at midfield. Our centre fwd St Ledger is 21, our full back is 20. Its all a bit risky playing so many young guys in the vital positions, but have no real choice.

If we win Sunday, that will be such a huge boost & with 2 of next 3 games after at home v Fermanagh & Clare, with a trip to Roscommon in the middle it could be a possible promotion push.

But honestly I think we will lose a close game Sunday, and will end up around 5th or 6th as usual. Will surprise 1 team tho along the way as we always seem to do. 2 years ago bet Tipp in the year they got promoted & last year drew with Waterford as they got promoted too.

[spectator]

I'd have to ask the auld lad when Longford last beat Roscommon. I dont recall a win in the 80s, 90s, 00s. I'm sure there's a win there somewhere before then.

Looking at Owenmoresider's excellent compilation of league tables since 1963,  in Div. 1A of 1970-71 ye won only one game in that league ... playing 6 games, losing 5 and winning 1.  Yeer game against Kildare obviously wasn't played.

We of course just had to get the better of ye  batin ye to the coveted bihatimber - also known in those days as The Wooden Shpoon, playing 7 games and losing  all 7

41 years of hurt against Ros ... (not quite as long as the Mayoites hurt for Sam granted, but still ...)

What more powerful motivation could the Larrys taking the field on Sunday ask for, but to be the famous men who brought an end to the years of misery and hurt against The Rossies


Division 1A 1970-71

         P   W   D   L   Pts   
Kerry         7   5   1   1   11
Dublin      7   5   1   1   11
Offaly         7   4   2   1   10
Cork         7   4   0   3   08
Kildare      6   3   1   2   07
Galway      7   3   1   3   07
Longford      6   1   0   5   02
Roscommon   7   0   0   7   00

[ross matt]

I imagine Fergie will be targeting promotion as an absolute must this year. With the probable re-emergence of Mayo and Galway as forces retaining the Nestor will probably be beyond the Rossies but getting out of Div 4 would be progress longterm and maybe set the side up for  a decent back door run in the championship.

[Shamrock Shore]

Auld lad cannot recall that last win over the Rossies in 1970.

That's saying something as he can recall games in the early 1940s.

[ross4life]

Roscommon Team for Sunday


Mark Miley          St. Dominics

Seán McDermott    Western Gaels
Donal Ward        Western Gaels
Stephen Ormsby  St. Faithleachs

Niall Carty         Padraig Pearses
David Keenan   St. Barrys
Seán Purcell      Boyle

Michael Finneran St. Dominics
Kevin Higgins      Western Gaels

David OGara       Roscommon Gaels
Conor Devanney    Kilbride
Cathal Cregg    Western Gaels

John Rogers      Strokestown
Paul Garvey       Kilmore
Ger Heneghan   Castlerea St. Kevins

Subs
Eamon MacGinley    Western Gaels
Ronan Brady      Elphin
John Nolan     Roscommon Gaels
Conor Beirne      Elphin
James McKeague   Creggs
James Connaughton   St. Croans
Senan OGrady     St. Faithleachs
Fintan Cregg         Elphin
Jonathon Dunning   Clann na nGael
Cathal Shine        Clann na nGael
Martin Reynolds   St. Faithleachs


Decent enough team average age must be 23....will have to make do without our goalkeeper,FB,two half back,best midfielder & two best scoring forwards

Chance for the others to impress

[ross4life]

We lead 7-4 at ht decent enough showing from us hopefully we don't fade in 2nd half like we normally do

[Shamrock Shore]

Longford 1-07 Rossies 0-10 FT.

Longford should have been home and dry with 10 mins to go but some awful front of goal misses meant that we were lucky, in the end, to get a draw.

[ross4life]

Mixed feelings about todays game, yet another awful 2nd half from us if longford had their scoring boots on they would have won but disappointed to not win when we were leading 4mins into injured time, though i suppose a point away to longford is a decent start.

[Midlands Man]

Anyone a bt of a report from the leitrim /clare game.. Who did the scoring

[spectator]

Draw was a fair result, with the scoring goals living up to its nickname. Longford were very sluggish in the first half, during which Ros dominated midfield & snaffled most of the breaking ball. Rodge kicked three frees, with a point apiece from play for Ger & Kevin Higgins. The backs were getting in on the act too, with Stephen Ormsby & Niall Carty showing the forwards how to kick points, with some nice set-up play from Paul Garvey who was foraging deep. Dev sent a chance to put us 4 up on the blow of half-time wide & one wondered would a 3 points lead be enough facing into the hill? HT Score: RN 0.7 LD 0.4 Longford contested the game much more tenaciously  in the second half & Paul Barden didn't need a second glance when he rifled to the top corner of the net to give Longford a one point lead, after a great pass in from a sideline. Longford then enjoyed a period of dominance but were guilty of kicking 3 bad wides in a row, as their supporters were nearly driven to despair. Cathal Shine came on for Ros & proved an effective target man at FF, kicking a fine equalising point in the process. Rodge (f) and Ger then regained the lead and put Ros one up, before Sean McCormack kicked a monster free from 45M out on the right sideline to gain a deserved draw for the Longfordians. Ros had a couple of half chances to snatch it also in injury time while under severe pressure when shooting, but all in all the fairest result prevailed in the end.

[45GoneShort]

Anyone a bt of a report from the leitrim /clare game.. Who did the scoring

Leitrim very lucky to get a win today.  Clare played with 13 men for the last 25mins, stupid sending offs that cost them a win.  Clare were up by 2points 5mins to go but literally ran out of steam.  While happy with the win, I won't be looking forward to playing Fermanagh and Roscommon going on the performance today.  Having said that Leitrim could well end up on 8/10 points from this league campaign which would be a real achievement given the new look to the team this season.

[ross matt]

Draw was a fair result, with the scoring goals living up to its nickname. Longford were very sluggish in the first half, during which Ros dominated midfield & snaffled most of the breaking ball. Rodge kicked three frees, with a point apiece from play for Ger & Kevin Higgins. The backs were getting in on the act too, with Stephen Ormsby & Niall Carty showing the forwards how to kick points, with some nice set-up play from Paul Garvey who was foraging deep. Dev sent a chance to put us 4 up on the blow of half-time wide & one wondered would a 3 points lead be enough facing into the hill? HT Score: RN 0.7 LD 0.4 Longford contested the game much more tenaciously  in the second half & Paul Barden didn't need a second glance when he rifled to the top corner of the net to give Longford a one point lead, after a great pass in from a sideline. Longford then enjoyed a period of dominance but were guilty of kicking 3 bad wides in a row, as their supporters were nearly driven to despair. Cathal Shine came on for Ros & proved an effective target man at FF, kicking a fine equalising point in the process. Rodge (f) and Ger then regained the lead and put Ros one up, before Sean McCormack kicked a monster free from 45M out on the right sideline to gain a deserved draw for the Longfordians. Ros had a couple of half chances to snatch it also in injury time while under severe pressure when shooting, but all in all the fairest result prevailed in the end.

Cheers for the report Spectator. Draw is better than a loss obviously but hardly a great result when Longford were missing their star man. Then again I guess Shine's absence probably cancelled that factor out and there were quite a few regulars missing from the Ross line out. Still though in order to get out of div 4  these are the matches to be winning.

[ross4life]

Monday February 07 2011

Sean McCormack landed a splendid long-range free-kick deep in stoppage time to earn Longford a draw at Pearse Park.

The Rossies held a three-point cushion at the interval in this local derby, but the home side quickly bridged the deficit with scores from McCormack and David Barden, who was making a welcome return to inter-county football.

Roscommon dominated the early exchanges and looked a lot sharper in front of the target. Free-taker John Rogers took full advantage of Longford's lack of discipline and he raised the white flag three times in the first half.

Twenty minutes had elapsed before Glenn Ryan's men finally registered their opening point from play. Paul Barden instigated the move after he played the ball into the path of McCormack and the nippy corner-forward duly slotted over from an acute angle.

After the break, Longford continued to trim the margin back but the loss of centre-back Enda Williams and goalkeeper Damien Sheridan, who both picked up serious injuries, weakened their position.

A glorious Paul Barden goal into the top corner put Longford ahead for the first time in the 48th minute. This brief lead was cancelled out over the following 15 minutes with the visitors regaining control with points from sub Cathal Shine and Rogers.

A Ger Heneghan point appeared to have snatched the win for Roscommon with five minutes remaining, but McCormack rescued a point for the hosts with a fantastic dead-ball effort in stoppage time.

Scorers -- Longford: S McCormack 0-5 (3f), P Barden 1-0, B McElvaney (f), D Barden 0-1 each. Roscommon: J Rogers 0-4f, G Heneghan 0-2, S Ormsby, N Carty, K Higgins, C Shine 0-1 each.

Longford -- D Sheridan; D Brady, B Gilleran, D Reilly; S Mulligan, E Williams, P Foy; K Diffley, B McElvaney; P Barden, D McElligott, D Barden; Noel Farrell, P Dowd, S McCormack. Subs: M Brady for E Williams (inj, h-t), J McKenna for D Sheridan (inj, 43), Niall Mulligan for N Farrell (51).

Roscommon -- M Miley; S McDermott, D Ward, S Ormsby; N Carty, D Keenan, S Percell; M Finneran, K Higgins; D O'Gara, C Devanney, C Cregg; J Rogers, P Garvey, G Heneghan. Subs: C Shine for P Garvey (52), F Cregg for D O'Gara (73).

Ref -- J Henry (Mayo).

[stevecw]

Interesting start to Div 4 with 2 draws and a point between others in the games that mattered.

I was at the Carlow/Wicklow game, and have to say it was probably the best div 4 game I've seen in a long time. High scoring, great atmosphere and was in the balance all the way.

As I said in my earlier post in this thread we are going with a youthful side this year based on our sucessful minor/u21s. 5 of that side started yesterday with another brought on at ht. 2 were out injured along with about 6 other older probable starters. Weakened us badly in defence especially.
But also Wicklow were also missing about 3 or 4 of their 1st choice backs too, so was always going to be a high scoring game.

Even enough 1st half with Carlow going 6-4 up, and then kicking 3 or 4 wides in a row...and Wicklow were far better in taking their chances, and scored 3 pts to lead 7-6 at ht. Dempsey made a good change at ht and took off a half injured mf, moved Thomas Walsh from full forward out to mf where he belongs alongside the once again Motm Brendan Murphy. The sub forward he brought in scored a great goal early in 2nd half, foillowed up 2 mins later by a Thomas Walsh goal. Put Carlow 2-7 - 0-10 ahead after Wicklow had opened 2nd half well with 3 pts. Carlow got another pt, and then Wicklows McGrath got a red after a really late tackle. It seemed like we had it wrapped up 4 pts clear, with extra man...but oh no that's not Carlows way of doing things.

Had a free out in corner back position, and he kicks it out over line. From the sideline Stafford picked out Glynn and he bet defender and buried a goal. Followed up with a pt from kick out and level. 2 pts each were then shared, and with a min to go Wicklow went ahead after another give away by Carlow backs. Their supporters went crazy, the roar of them u'd think it was a Leinster final. Then Carlow had a free in, missed yet again as we had done a lot. But in injury time swung over a great point to level it and ended in a draw.

Some game, one we should have won, and won easily. But being a pt down going into injury time have to be happy enough to get a point in the end.

Saw lots of good things in that Carlow display to think we have our best side in a few years, but need to sort out the crazy mistakes. Fermanagh at home next Sunday, it all comes down to that. Win it we are in a promotion race, lose it its league over already.