Clann na nGael opened their Hodson Bay Roscommon Senior Football Championship campaign in impressive fashion.
The 21-time winners scored a surprise victory over defending champion Strokestown winning 3-13 to 0-10 at Johnstown.
Clann led 2-5 to 0-8 at the break and their manager Pat Fallon said this provided a solid springboard for the victory.
Good start
“I thought we got off to a really good start. It’s something we’ve been trying to get right for the last while,” said Fallon.
“Even during the league we were slow to start but today we started really quickly”
“I was really impressed with our application. I think everybody worked really, really hard as a team. If you do that, you always have a chance.”
Goals
Clann struck two goals in the first-half through Sea Henry and Fearghus Lennon. Ciaran Lennon's added another one in the second half.
Fallon says it’s the fruits of good work on the training ground.
“Goals always are crucial in every game, and we’ve been working a bit on that.”
“The goals came at the right times. And I suppose, they say goals win games so the more you can score the better.”
Full forward line Fearghus Lennon, Sea Henry and Josh Lennon amassed 2-6 collectively.
While impressed with their contribtuion tally, Fallon was quick to acknowledge the good work done further out the field.
“I think we got a lot of our scores from where we turned over the ball so you have to give kudos to the lads back defending and putting in the hard tackles.
“I thought our physicality was really good, I think we turned over the ball quite a lot and we broke fairly quickly.
“Strokestown are really good defensively, when they’ve time to get back and set up.
“But we got the ball into our full-forward line fairly quickly and then the lads did what they’re there to do.”
Staying focused
A solid start to the championship for sure but Fallon says there’s no room for complacency.
“It’s very early in the year, there’s a lot of football to be played yet.”
“All Championship is cut-throat, you have to try and perform as well as you can in every game and then hopefully you get the outcome.”
