Egan hails Roscommon players for ‘huge effort’

Roscommon manager Finbar Egan was understandably delighted after his side overcame Westmeath in last Sunday’s LGFA All-Ireland intermediate semi-final at Kingspan Breffni Park - see here for report.

Amid the celebratory mood among players and supporters on the pitch afterwards, Egan said: “I’m delighted for the girls, they have put in a huge amount of work. Our U16 and minor girls are in All-Ireland finals, and it’s an unbelievable achievement for the county to have three teams in All-Ireland finals. We’re just delighted that these girls finally get a chance to play in Croke Park.”

“We didn’t show up in the Connacht final (where Roscommon suffered a heavy defeat against Leitrim). We couldn’t score that day; we went 20 minutes without getting a score. The girls put in a huge effort today, up and down the pitch,” Egan continued.

“Not everything went well for us today, we gave away an awful lot of scores. We kept Westmeath from scoring for a long time in the first half, and then we proceeded to give away enough scores for them to be leading at half-time. But we didn’t lose our composure.

"The two-point free for Westmeath (scored by Anna Jones) was fantastic, everyone could have dropped the heads, but we came down and Lauren Shanagher got the goal and then a free (from Aisling Feely) to finish it off.”

“We have girls fighting to get into the team from our small squad, like Mia Macken who had a cruciate injury. She flew back from America to be with the team here today. It’s quality, not quantity, we have and that’s the spirit in this group.

"It’s the girls who have turned things around, not the management. They are the ones that have got us there and I hope for their sake that they now go on and finish the job,” said Egan, who previously had a very successful stint in charge of Mayo.

Looking ahead to the All-Ireland final against Fermanagh (who edged out Down in the other semi-final), Egan said: “It’s 25 years since the last time a Roscommon ladies team played in Croke Park, and we are going to have a real go. The girls are friends, they are working so hard for each other. Finals aren’t for playing well in, they’re for winning.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have been up there a few times but it’s the worst place on earth to lose because there’s nobody coming onto the pitch afterwards, but if we perform like that, we’ll have a real shot at winning it,” the Monksland native added.