Roscommon's triumphant minor football manager Fergal O'Donnell has warned that there is no guarantee that last Saturday's All-Ireland victory will manifest itself at senior level. The Rossies produced a heroic performance to beat favourites Kerry at the second time of asking amid joyous scenes at Cusack Park in Ennis. "It's a great boost for the county, but it doesn't automatically mean that it will lead to a major breakthrough at senior level," O'Donnell stressed. "Adequate structures are not yet in place in Roscommon, and there are lots of flaws and problems. Our underage structure would be miles behind the northern teams and Kerry. However, we now have a lot of bargaining power, and hopefully the county board will respond favourably to this." O'Donnell felt that the number of close games Roscommon have been involved in this year stood them in good stead. "We got the break of a lucky goal early in the second half. But then Kerry really put it up to us by scoring four points on the trot to go one point ahead with 15 minutes left. "However, with the expection of the game against Tipperary, all of our games this year have been very tight, and I felt we would be there or thereabouts if we didn't concede a goal after Kerry went one point up," he said. "A few of our lads, including David Keenan, had gone a bit out of the game in the early stages of the second half. But then they really stormed back to gain us a vital foothold. As well, our captain David Flynn led by example. By his own standards, he had an indifferent first 20 minutes but otherwise he was tremendous in both." Kerry boss John Kennedy had no complaints. "They were the better team and we can have no arguments. When we went a point up at half-time, I thought we could have held it and gone on, but they got the goal and that proved the difference," he said. Tweet

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