Next Sunday’s FBD League Final will be a rematch of the 2015 decider and will see the Senior Footballers of Roscommon and Galway go to battle for the first silverware of the year.
Roscommon defeated Mayo by 0-13 to 0-10 in MacHale Park, Castlebar a short time ago for the second successive January to reach the FBD League Final while Galway enjoyed a comfortable 0-16 to 1-5 win over GMIT.
Roscommon dominated the opening quarter of the game in Castlebar and led by four points to nil; with scores from Diarmuid Murtagh, Neil Collins, Fintan Cregg and Cathal Cregg. Mayo eventually got on the scoreboard in the 15th minute via a pointed free from Conor Loftus. That was the first of three consecutive points from the home side before Cathal Cregg replied in the 25th minute and added another in the 30th minute to make it Roscommon 0-6 Mayo 0-3. Conor Loftus reduced the deficit to two points with his second score of the afternoon in the 32nd minute to leave it Roscommon 0-6 Mayo 0-4 at the interval.
Roscommon began the second half brightly with points from Ciarán Murtagh and Enda Smith however Conor Loftus came to Mayo’s rescue again in the 37th minute with his third point. Mayo added another point two minutes later before Ciarán Murtagh made it 0-9 to 0-6 courtesy of a pointed free. Mayo began to dominate the middle third of the field as the half progressed but they didn’t make that dominance count. Points were traded again as Senan Kilbride pointed in response to Mayo’s latest revival to put Roscommon into double figures. Niall Daly and Ciarán Murtagh added further scores to leave it Roscommon 0-12 to 0-7 in the 48th minute. Mayo replied again three minutes later before Ciarán Murtagh for his fourth and Roscommon’s 13th and final score of the game in the 22nd minute of the second half.
The failure to score in the closing stages led to some nervous moment for supporters. However the defence stood strong and restricted Mayo to just two points in the ten minutes that followed and the game ended Roscommon 0-13 Mayo 0-10.
The FBD League Final is set to take place next Sunday at 2pm, with Tuam likely to be confirmed as the venue.
Team and scorers:
1 Geoffrey Claffey
27 Sean McDermott
4 Neil Collins 0-1
28 Ronan Stack
2 Niall McInerney
6 Niall Daly 0-1
7 Conor Daly
8 Enda Smith 0-1
9 Ian Kilbride (Captain)
10 Fintan Cregg 0-1
11 Ciaran Murtagh 0-4
12 Ronan Daly
15 Diarmuid Murtagh 0-1
13 Senan Kilbride 0-1
29 Cathal Cregg 0-3
Subs used: Gary Patterson for Ronan Stack, Scott Oates for Diarmuid Murtagh, Kieran Kilcline for Fintan Cregg, Brian Murtagh for Niall Daly
Attendance: 3,845