Roscommon captured the Division Two title with this 1-17 to 0-15 victory over 14-man Down at Croke Park.

Senan Kilbride was Man of the Match for last year's Division Three winners, who also collected the FBD Connacht league crown earlier this year. The losers will rue the fact that they had to play the entire second half with 14 men after their No.6 Brendan McArdle had been harshly lined towards the end of the opening period.

Ciaran Murtagh drilled the ball to the roof of the net in the 61st minute to end the match as a contest, gathering the breaking ball to unleash a rasper that left seven points between the sides, 1-16 to 0-12.

At the end of an unmemorable first half, the sides remained deadlocked - 0-7 each - but the Mourne County had been stunned by the dismissal of McArdle to a second yellow card in the 33rd minute.

The Rossies surpisingly omitted talismanic forward Diarmuid Murtagh from the off, with Cian Connolly taking his place in the starting XV. Murtagh would enter the fray as a half-time substitute... Down, meanwhile, lost Mark Poland, who was struck in the face by a ball during the warm-up, and also omitted Damian Turley from their team, with Aidan Carr and Darragh O'Hanlon getting the nod in attack and defence respectively.

Conor Laverty punished a mistake in the Roscommon defence to open the scoring after 15 seconds but Cathal Cregg replied with a strike between the Hill 16 uprights in the fourth minute. Ciaran Murtagh fisted the ball over the bar from a tight angle to edge the Connacht county ahead for the first time before Connolly and Donal O'Hare traded frees from the hands at either end.

Down centre back McArdle drilled over the leveller with a stinging drive from distance, which was almost a goal, and the sides were all-square at the end of the opening quarter, 0-3 apiece. Both teams dropped shots short, Murtagh struck a post and Cregg pulled a great goal chance to the left of the posts and wide before Murtagh fired a simple free wide of the target.

After 13 minutes without a score at either end, Kilbride's lovely score had the Rossies back in front in the 24th; Paul Devlin (free), Connolly and Conor Maginn all traded quickfire points to leave the scores still tied after half an hour, 0-5 each.

Down were reduced to 14 men on the stroke of half time, when McArdle was shown his second yellow for the merest of tugs with Connolly lashing over the resulting free. The 14 men replied with stunning points from Caolan Mooney and O'Hare but Roscommon closed the first-half scoring with a Donal Smith strike.

The Rossies pulled away with stunning points from Ciaran Cafferky and Kilbride in the 37th and 38th minutes respectively before a Ciaran Murtagh free left three between the sides for the first time. Connolly tapped over a free from in front of the posts and Peter Fitzpatrick benefited from a superb Mooney catch to reply.

The 14 men closed within a point thanks to further scores from Kevin McKernan and O'Hare but back came John Evans' men with an exquisite Kilbride score: 0-12 to 0-10 after 46 minutes. McKernan and Kilbride swapped brilliant points and a converted O'Hare free meant it was a one-point game as we passed the three-quarters stage. But Connolly dropped over a fine Roscommon point (free) on 54 minutes and Diarmuid Murtagh followed up with a score from play two minutes later.

Substitute Donie Shine chipped over a free to leave four in it with twelve minutes left and Murtagh's magnificent goal in the 61st minute ended the game as any sort of meaningful contest - 1-16 to 0-12. Substitute Ryan Johnston and O'Hare (free) pulled back a couple of consolation points before substitute Ultan Harney supplied the winners' 17th point of the day.

Jerome Johnston won and converted a Down free in the 68th minute but it was too late for Jim McCorry's men as the Rossies took the silverware with five points to spare.

Roscommon - D O'Malley; D Murray, N Carty, N Collins; C Daly, N Daly, C Cafferkey (0-1); K Higgins, C Shine; D Smith (0-1), C Murtagh (1-2, 0-1f), R Stack; C Connolly (0-5, 4f), S Kilbride (0-4), C Cregg (0-1). Subs: D Murtagh (0-1) for D Smith, U Harney (0-1) for C Cregg, B Murtagh for D Murray (BC), D Shine (0-1f) for C Connolly, C Compton for C Murtagh, I Kilbride for K Higgins.

Down - S Kane; G Collins, L Howard, D O'Hanlon; D O'Hagan, B McArdle (0-1), C McGovern; P Turley, P Devlin (0-1); C Maginn (0-1), K McKernan (0-2), A Carr; C Laverty (0-1), C Mooney (0-1), D O'Hare (0-5, 3f). Subs: P Fitzpatrick (0-1) for P Turley, R Johnston (0-1) for P Devlin, N Madine for A Carr, A McConville for C Maginn, J Johnston (0-1f) for K McKernan, R Boyle for G Collins.

Referee - M Deegan.

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