Roscommon's failure to build on last year's appearance in the All-Ireland football quarter-final in the season just past came as a major disappointment to team captain and goalkeeper Shane Curran. In the end, Roscommon's pride had been salvaged. A 0-13 to 1-14 defeat to Dublin in a rip-roaring All-Ireland football qualifier at Croke Park may have come as a major disappointment to Tommy Carr and his players, but considering what had gone before it, it was by no means a poor ending to the season. Two weeks earlier, the Rossies hit rock bottom when they slumped to a 0-9 to 2-13 defeat to Mayo in the Connacht final. For a team that had such high hopes beforehand and had made a major impact on the 2003 championship by reaching the All-Ireland quarter-final, the defeat was a devastating setback. But the performance against Dublin went a long way towards restoring supporters' faith in Roscommon football. "Our pride was restored to a certain extent against Dublin," reflects Roscommon captain and goalkeeper Shane Curran. "The Mayo defeat was a crushing blow, but at least we came out fighting against Dublin and that was the most important thing. If we had gone up to Croke Park and played like we did against Mayo, the supporters would have been asking a lot of questions. And they would have been entitled to," he adds. The flamboyant goalkeeper, who produced one of the performances of the championship when scoring 1-1 against Sligo in the Connacht first round replay, admits that it was a disappointing season for Roscommon given that neither of their two goals were achieved. "We had set ourselves two targets at the start of the year. The first was to get promotion in the league while the second was to at least equal last year's achievement in reaching the All-Ireland quarter-final," he explains. "But we failed to achieve either of those goals and I would put that down to a lack of consistency. We played reasonably well against Dublin, but that's not worth a curse if you don't learn from it. "The top teams are achieving 85 to 90 per cent consistency whereas we're only achieving about 70 per cent. We're a real Jekyll and Hyde sort of team. This year we struggled to get over Leitrim in the championship and we had the same problem in the league against supposedly weaker opposition. The smaller teams are killing us." Roscommon were expected to begin the new season by gaining promotion from Division 2 of the National League. However, defeats to Donegal and Offaly cost them their place in the top flight. "Missing out on promotion was a big disappointment for us because we felt we were good enough to go straight back up," Curran recalls. "The crunch game was the one against Donegal in Hyde Park. We put in a great first half display but they came back in the second half to beat us by a point. How we didn't win that game by 10 points I'll never know. That defeat knocked the wind out of our sails and I suppose whatever hopes we had of getting promotion were ended when Offaly beat us in Tullamore." He continues: "Looking back on the league, we had a lot of injuries and we were forced into blooding five or six new players as a result. But I suppose that's part and parcel of the game." While teams have been known to reach the Connacht final on the back of just one game, it took Roscommon over 300 minutes of football to get that far this year. But after some titanic battles against Offaly and Kildare in last year's All-Ireland qualifying series, Roscommon supporters have become accustomed to watching their team do things the hard way. "All our games seem to be roller-coaster affairs," Curran declares. "We don't go out with the intention of being involved in the sort of matches that have supporters biting their fingernails. But for some unknown reason, it always seems to work out that way." The Connacht championship draw pitted Roscommon against Sligo in the first round at Hyde Park. Ros' looked set for victory after Karol Mannion's first half goal put them in a commanding position, but Sligo fought back in the second half to force a replay. The replay at Markievicz Park was another tense affair and it took the scoring exploits of a certain goalkeeper to turn the game in Roscommon's favour. In an unforgettable display, the St. Brigid's man ended up as his team's joint top scorer with a tally of 1-1. His goal came from a penalty and his point was a fantastic long-range free from the left sideline which forced the game into extra-time. Ros' entered their semi-final joust with Leitrim as hot favourites, but yet again they mixed the good with the bad and were somewhat fortunate to escape with a draw. The replay was shaping up to be another close contest until John Hanly goal's in the 45th minute put the primrose and blues on the road to a 1-9 to 0-5 victory. Three years ago, Roscommon edged out Mayo in a dramatic Connacht final but John Maughan's charges exacted sweet revenge with a surprisingly comfortable victory at Castlebar on July 18 last. The writing was on the wall at half-time when Mayo led 1-7 to 0-2. With scorer-in-chief Frankie Dolan being withdrawn at half-time, Roscommon never appeared capable of making up the deficit in the second period and their fate was sealed when substitute Austin O'Malley bagged a late goal for the home side. Against Dublin, Roscommon produced a vastly improved display but still succumbed to a four-point defeat. The only goal was scored by Jason Sherlock just before half-time and left Tommy Carr's men playing catch-up for the entire second half. "We had enough chances to beat Dublin but didn't take them. On another day we would have scored four goals. It was the same thing against Mayo. That game turned on a bad miss we had after 10 minutes," Curran says. Curran welcomes the decision by Tommy Carr to remain on as manager for a third year. "It's a great boost to Roscommon that Tommy has decided to stay on. If every player gave the same commitment as he does, we'd be a much better team. When Tommy announced that he was staying on, he claimed that we needed to change our lifestyles to be successful. I totally agree with him on that. "We need to apply ourselves more. We might not be producing great underage teams but the players are in the county to take Roscommon onto a higher level. But fellas are going to have to take a hard look at themselves before success can be achieved," he opines. Despite their flaws, the 33-year-old custodian is convinced that Roscommon have the potential to challenge for major honours next year. "Our aim is to win Division 2 and the All-Ireland," he says with great conviction. "On our day we are capable of beating anyone. But it's our inconsistency that's dragging us down. Fermanagh nearly got to an All-Ireland final this year and there's no reason why we can't achieve something similar next year. Why not Roscommon?" Why not indeed. Tweet

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