Roscommon 1-16 London 0-10:Roscommon got their campaign back on track with an expected easy victory over London at Ruislip yesterday. Playing with the aid of the breeze a superb first-half display proved decisive as they established a 1-11 to 0-3 lead.
Both sides, who had suffered disappointing opening-round defeats, were determined to make amends, but it was John Maughan's team who looked the sharper in the opening exchanges. It only took the visitors three minutes to prise open a vulnerable defence when Séamus O'Neill put through Cathal Cregg to blast past Brian McBrearty.
London battled bravely in midfield, especially Declan Meehan. Two Darragh Kinneavy points inside the first eight minutes offered some resistance.
Not surprisingly, London rang the changes at half-time with the introduction of the Hehir brothers, Senan and Paul. Playing a more direct game, London came more into contention and helped by five points from Niall Clinton they outscored the visitors by 0-7 to 0-5 but never looked like causing an upset.
ROSCOMMON: G Claffey; S McDermott, A McDermott, J Callery (0-1); N Moran, J Nolan (W), J Nolan (R); R O'Connor, D Hoey (0-1); G Cox (0-4, two frees), S O'Neill (0-1), D Connellan; A Dooney (0-1), G Henegan (0-6, one 45, three frees), C Cregg (1-2). Subs: D Donnellan for A McDermott, S Higgins for Dooney.
LONDON: B McBrearty; D Cannon, C Beirne, S Boyle; P Morgan, E O'Connor (0-1), S Campbell; D Meehan, G Kane; D Kinneavy (0-2), A Gallagher, P O'Donoghue; D O'Brien, E Brennan, N Clinton (0-6, one free). Subs: S Hehir for S Boyle, P Hehir (0-1) for D O'Brien, D Gallagher for Meehan, Mark Mulholland for P O'Donoghue,
Referee: P Mullan (Antrim).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)