Rossies deepen Donegal woes with comprehensive win

Roscommon piled further misery on Donegal to maintain their top-flight status for the first time in seven seasons with a 0-21 to 0-09 win.

Davy Burke's men had things all their own way as they cruised to victory in front of over 4,000 spectators in Dr Hyde Park, although they missed out on a league final place as a result of Galway’s victory over Kerry.

The sides were level at 0-04 apiece after 11 minutes, but from there until the finish it was all one-way traffic as the hosts kicked scores for fun.

Over the 70 minutes, Roscommon had 11 different scorers and kicked 0-20 from play in a one-sided contest.

Donegal, in the aftermath of Paddy Carr's resignation during the week, showed some enterprise early on with scores from Eoghan Ban Gallagher, Caolan McGonagle, Conor Donnell and Jamie Brennan.

But Roscommon matched them with a Diarmuid Murtagh free and points from play by Tadhg O’Rourke, the excellent Ben O’Carroll and full back Brian Stack.

Then the Rossies took command, led by the Murtagh brothers, Enda Smith and O’Carroll.

Between them, they kicked the next seven scores, with midfielder Keith Doyle also getting in on the act to hand Roscommon a 0-12 to 0-7 interval lead.

After a tough week on and off the field, Donegal never raised a gallop as they were constantly overturned by a tigerish Roscommon rearguard, spearheaded by Stack.

It could have been worse for the visitors as Conor Cox spurned a decent goal chance when there were better options available, but the Connacht side were always able to keep the scoreboard ticking over, with Smith pulling the strings in the half-forward line.

Ciarán Thompson and substitute Jeaic McKelvey registered Donegal’s only two scores of the second period, but Roscommon were rarely troubled as