Roscommon ignoring infighting rumours

Roscommon forward Ciarán Murtagh said the county had enough to deal with the disappointment of the shock Connacht SFC semi-final loss to Sligo without getting caught up in rumours of rows in the camp.

Stories emerged of a number of rows before and after the surprise 1-14 to 0-13 loss to Sligo, but Murtagh said they didn’t pay any heed to them.

"There was a few rumours and we heard them all but John Evans and the management team told us not to listen to it.

“We all knew that they were untrue so the minute we found out we were playing Cavan it was just all eyes on Cavan and we didn’t listen to anything or read into anything that was going on.

“We were disappointed with how the game went against Sligo, all John asked us for was a performance and we just didn’t give him that.

“We said when we were going out against Cavan so long as we performed the result would follow and it went well and we got the result,” said the St Faithleach’s corner forward.

Potential

The 22-year-old said the key now was to back up that win away to Fermanagh on Sunday.

And he believes if they play to their potential they will have enough to get past Fermanagh on Sunday at Brewster Park in Enniskillen.

“Fermanagh are very good and we struggled against them last year in the league.

“They have a very good defensive system, they have a set-up in place and have some very dangerous forwards so we know how tough it is going to be but hopefully we can just get the performance.

“That is what we are going to be looking for again this weekend,” he added.

Elsewhere, Cavan GAA bosses are waiting to sit down with manger Terry Hyland to decide if he will spend a fifth season in charge of the Breffni county.

Cavan exited the championship last weekend following a Round 2A qualifier defeat to Roscommon, and while a win in the previous round against London was impressive and they only lost out to Monaghan by a point in Ulster, results have not been kind.

Now in his fourth year as Cavan manager – he was initially joint manager with Val Andrews – Hyland indicated after Saturday’s clash that he was willing to stay on for another season, but the county board chairman Gerry Brady has yet to speak with Hyland about his future.

“We haven’t had any discussions yet, we’ve let things sit for the time being. It’s too early, he wouldn’t have had a chance to have any discussions with his backroom team yet,” said Brady.