Roslea’s ability to plunder goals again proved crucial as they over came 14 man Derrygonnelly to secure a league and championship double at Brewster Park on Sunday.

Last week they hit the back of the net four times as they saw off St. Pat’s in the semi-final and on Sunday first half goals from Niall Cosgrove and Sean Quigley were decisive as the Shamrocks finished up three point winners on the day.

Roslea joint manager Mark Harte recognises the importance of goals and he doesn’t care what way they go in. Niall Cosgrove fired home from close range after the ball broke to him in front of goal while Sean Quigley showed great composure to tuck away a second goal.

“If the ball ends up in the net, that’s all you care about,” he said. “We’ve been lucky enough in that we’ve had wonderful goals and we’ve had really scrappy goals this season and at the end of the day they all count the same. We’re just happy that they went in today.” It was a game though were Roslea had to battle to shake off a determined Derrygonnelly side who never threw in the towel despite the early sending off of midfielder Cormac Glynn.

Indeed, it took a late scoring burst from the Shamrocks to claim the win after the Harps had fought back to level the encounter with ten minutes to go.

“It is that old thing were your opponents lose a man and if you don’t win you’ve made a mess of things. For them to get back level and us still to have the extra man, we could have panicked. But I think once they got level we started to play better and began to realise that this thing is really under threat here and we kicked a couple of really important scores that just about got us over the line. Derrygonnelly finished top of the league and that was for a reason so we knew it was going to be a battle and we just happened to squeeze through,” he commented.

The two games in recent weeks have also provided ideal preparation for an Ulster Club meeting with the Donegal champions on November 9.

“That is good Ulster Club preparation. Last week which was probably a bit more of an open game where we were challenged with pace and movement and this week it was physicality. We learnt harsh lessons in the first half, especially about carrying the ball into the tackle. These game are better than sitting about, you’ve had action over the last couple of weeks and now we will focus on the next game,” he commented.

The win did come at a cost though with Sean Quigley sustaining a knee injury at the death.

“As a manager you’re just interested in everybody coming off the field in one piece, that’s the big thing and whereas we are happy with the result, for that to happen to Sean with the last kick was very unfortunate. It was physical game, it was always going to be as there was a lot at stake but I’m not sure there was any malice in the challenge at all. It was just a coming together, these things happen in football and we wish Sean all the best.

“We said a couple of weeks ago after the championship that the run into the Ulster Club was all about keeping men fresh and keeping men fit, so that’s a blow but we’ll not panic until we see the outcome of the scans and what it reveals,” he added.

Derrygonnelly manager Paul Greene felt that Glynn’s red card was a big factor in the outcome but he was full of praise for his players.

“It had a huge bearing on the game. I thought it was just a trailing arm and I think you should give the lad the benefit of doubt,” said Greene. “It was an uphill battle after that given the way Roslea play so defensively with seven or eight fellas behind the ball. We kept going though and got ourselves back level but we just ran out of steam in the last five or six minutes. You can’t question Derrygonnelly’s heart, the boys give it absolutely everything on the pitch. We had a few wides and Roslea had maybe four or five blocks and the ball fell for them. We had 70 percent of the ball in the second half and Roslea didn’t score until the 25th minute. No, you can’t fault the Derrygonnelly boys, they can hold their heads up high.” And he believes that his side should have had a free kick in the lead up to the second Roslea goal.

We felt Conall (Jones) was fouled out on the ‘45. We took a short kick out and he was brought down and it left Roslea with a man over. That second goal left us four points down at half time and a man down. Goals win games though and Roslea are good at them,” he added.