Roscommon’s revolution continues as they beat Armagh to win Division 3A title

Roscommon 2-17 Armagh 0-15

Eoin Fitzgerald of Roscommon, centre, celebrates with teammates

Kevin Egan

Roscommon’s revolution under Seamus Qualter was crowned with silverware and promotion in Navan, as the Rossies made it three big wins on the trot when they comfortably outplayed Armagh in the Allianz League Division 3A decider.

It wasn’t the 20-point hammering that Armagh endured when the two sides met in the Hyde three weeks ago, but they were put on the back foot from the early stages of this tie, as a goal from Conor Mulry and two outstanding points from Mickey Joe Egan gave the Connacht county a flying start with the aid of the breeze.

Missed goal chances were the story of the first half as Enda Lawless did brilliantly to deny Tomás Galvin on two occasions at one end, while at the other, Fintan Woods kept Armagh in touch by blocking efforts from Mulry and Adam Donnelly.

Armagh weren’t without hope at the half-time break, 1-9 to 0-6 adrift with a decent wind advantage to come, but they never got any momentum going in the second half and were undone by continued inaccuracy, including from some very scorable frees.

Paddy Fallon, Mickey Joe Egan and Eoin Fitzgerald were in outstanding form up front for Roscommon and they struck some wonderful points, with Fallon also setting up Egan for a goal in the 69th minute that made life much more comfortable for the winners through ten minutes of stoppage time.

Scorers for Roscommon: MJ Egan 1-5 (0-1f), P Fallon 0-7 (0-3f), C Mulry 1-0, A Donnelly 0-2, E Fitzgerald 0-2, N Connaughton 0-1.

Scorers for Armagh: F Donnelly 0-9 (0-8f), T O’Hare 0-2f, C Jennings 0-1, T Galvin 0-1, T Nevin 0-1, B Shortt 0-1f.

Roscommon: E Lawless 9; D Mullen 8, M Ward 8, T Fleming 6; D Finn 7, C Cosgrove 6, E Flanagan 7; E Fitzgerald 8, E Mulry 6; MJ Egan 8, A Donnelly 6, B Mulry 5; P Fallon 9, N Connaughton 6, C Mulry 7.

Subs: P Brennan 7 for Fleming (42), J Brennan 6 for Mulry (53), S Dowd 6 for Connaughton (55), Jack Dowling for Fitzgerald (66), Jack Naughton for Fallon (70+8).

Armagh: F Woods 8; B Shortt 8, S McPartland 6, O McCann 6; P Lappin 7, T Nevin 8, N Lennon 6; O Curry 6, P McBride 7; C Jennings 7, D Magee 5, F Donnelly 6; C Reneghan 5, T Galvin 8, S Harvey 6.

Subs: O O’Hare 6 for McCann (55), E McGuinness 6 for Magee (55), Paddy Garvey for Donnelly (69), Tiarnan O’Hare for Harvey (70), Tam McKavanagh for Jennings (70+5).

Referee: J Connors (Donegal)

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