THREE SECOND-HALF GOALS MASK A FRUSTRATING KERRY PERFORMANCE

All-Ireland SFC Group 2, round one

Kerry 3-18 Roscommon 0-17

WHILE it took a long time for them to hit top gear on the day, Kerry managed to push themselves towards a 10-point victory in their All-Ireland SFC Group 2 opener against Roscommon in Killarney on Saturday afternoon.

Having only led by 0-12 to 0-8 after 48 minutes, three goals between the 50th and 61st minutes put the match firmly in their favour and Jack O’Connor acknowledged the difficulty of the challenge the Connacht side presented until the final quarter.

“Roscommon made it difficult for us,” the Kerry manager said after their win.

“They held on to the ball for huge chunks of time in the first half, we knew they’d do that. I prophesised that this morning that they’d do that and we were a bit lethargic in the first half and we kind of stood off them a little bit.

“What you need to do in that situation is just go up man-on-man, because they didn’t appear to have any notion of kicking it inside.

“They were bringing out all their shooters outside and putting defenders inside. Look, we got to grips with things a bit better in the second half at midfield and I felt that was a big factor.”

Former Sleacht Néill manager Mark Doran took the post-match media duties instead of Roscommon manager Davy Burke and said that the other group matches, against Meath and Cork, are the ones that his side must focus on from here.

“We were reasonably happy at half-time with how we controlled things for ourselves but that rule-breach giving them the two-point free before the break made things look a bit different for us,” said Doran.

“We felt we could have made more use of the breeze in the second half before they got their goals, but you would take the positives more from today. We realise there is a gap between us and the top teams that we must close, taking this with our recent game against Galway.

“Our full focus will be facing Meath in two weeks’ time in the Hyde (Park) as that is probably our most important game of the year now,” the Down native said.

Roscommon took the lead twice in the early stages and Kerry didn’t lead until the 13th minute, when a two-point free from David Clifford made it 0-4 to 0-3.

Séan O’Shea put over another two-point free before half-time to make it 0-11 to 0-6 in the hosts’ favour at the break before they found life around the 50-minute mark.

Brian Ó Beaglaoich made a searing run to allow Clifford to finish for the first goal to make it 1-13 to 0-8 and Paul Geaney and Gavin White were Kerry’s other goalscorers as they led by 3-16 to 0-11 after 61 minutes.

Joe O’Connor and Mike Breen impressed for the Kingdom, as Ronan Daly and Brian Stack tried hard for the Rossies, for whom substitutes Diarmuid Murtagh and Conor Cox scored two-pointers off the bench.

Kerry travel to Cork in their second game, while Roscommon will host Meath.

Kerry S Ryan 0-1 (45); D Casey, J Foley, T O’Sullivan; B Ó Beaglaoich, M Breen 0-1, G White 1-0; D O’Connor 0-2, BD O’Sullivan; J O’Connor 0-2, S O’Shea 0-7 (2tpf, 0-1f), M Burns; D Clifford 1-3 (1tpf), P Geaney 1-1 (0-1m), D Geaney

Subs T Brosnan 0-1) for D Geaney, G O’Sullivan for M Burns (47), K Spillane for D Clifford (61), T Morley for B Ó Beaglaoich, M O’Shea for BD O’Sullivan (both 62).

Roscommon C Carroll; N Higgins, B Stack 0-1, D Murray; S Lambe, R Daly 0-3 (1tp), J McManus; E Nolan 0-1, K Doyle 0-1; D Ruane, E Smith, C Hand; D Cregg 0-1, B O’Carroll 0-2, C Murtagh 0-2 (0-1f)

Subs D Murtagh 0-3 (1tp) for K Doyle (41), C Neary for D Ruane (52), S Killoran for E Smith, C Lennon for S Lambe (both 55), C Cox 0-3 (1tp, 0-1f) for C Hand (57)

Referee D Coldrick (Meath)

2025-05-17T20:06:40Z