Win over Donegal 'does everything' for Rossie confidence
Roscommon manager Mark Dowd took great satisfaction from their victory over Donegal in the Allianz Football League Division 1 this afternoon and what it could mean for the county going forward.
The Rossies were tipped for the drop in many quarters before the start of the competition and have often failed to get over the line in big moments.
That was exemplified earlier in the league when losing to Kerry by a point, while they also produced a flat performance against Dublin when well-positioned to reach the top-two.
That hope is alive once again after upsetting the unbeaten Tír Conaill men in King and Moffatt Dr Hyde Park.
A win against Mayo next week could put the Rossies into the decider, while they have officially staved off any relegation fears.
Asked what it could mean for their confidence ahead of the Connacht Football Championship and All-Ireland series to come, Dowd said frankly: "It does everything for confidence. It's not as if we ever doubted our ability or skill or anything like that, but we needed to prove it to ourselves on the pitch and I think we've done that throughout the league so it gives us great confidence.
"I'm just delighted because last time against Dublin we came out of here and we were disappointed, we didn't give the performance. The challenge I set the guys was that we performed right to the very end and in fairness credit to them they've done that today."
Mark Dowd has led Roscommon to three wins in Division 1
It wasn't plain sailing for the home side as Donegal, arguably the most impressive side in the division so far, responded from a poor first period by beginning the second half with a flurry of scores.
That reduced an 11-point gap to one, only for Roscommon to prove their own class with Diarmuid Murtagh setting up substitute Conor Hand for a crucial goal.
Down reflected: "We put ourselves in a great position at half time. We had a massive challenge coming out in the second half and in fairness, to a man the guys, that came off the bench, our finishers, they were excellent.
"We knew firstly that we needed the lead at half time because we knew that [Donegal onslaught] was going to happen in the second half. The important thing for us was that we stuck to our structure, that we didn't get caught up in the moment, that we were not going to get caught up with them tipping away score by score.
"We just had to keep working at it and reset every time and go again. Thankfully we did in the last quarter, we got enough hands on ball there and we were able to control it a bit better in that final quarter, so that was very pleasing to see."
Down wasn’t surprised by the ferocity of Donegal’s play, but felt winning possession late on won his team the game: "They have the quality, that was always going to happen.
"We've seen it in the games the last number of weeks so not necessarily that I was worried but we wanted to get hands on ball.
"That was probably the thing we were worried about [if we could] and we did it and that was great to see."
