Roscommon Football: Keith Duggan on how Roscommon shocked Galway five years ago, only for the Tribesmen to strike back swiftly and with no mercy

It was not the most sensational result in GAA history, but no football game has illustrated the treacherous nature of the qualifying system like the Sunday in Tuam five years ago when Roscommon beat Galway in the Connacht championship.

The visitors came to town with an encouraging league under John Tobin behind them, having been beaten, typically, by Mayo at the semi-final stage. In addition, they had selected some of the more promising members of the county under-21 team that had won the Connacht championship, including Paul Noone and Frankie Dolan.

Spectators and pundits alike anticipated Roscommon would be stubborn, lethal in flashes, but ultimately simply not good enough to live with one of the most classy and exciting football teams of the modern era. Galway had lost the All-Ireland final the previous September after an absorbing encounter against Kerry that went to a replay.

Despite a tense period centring around a dispute between management and the Donnellan brothers and some less than impressive performances - they shipped three goal in the opening match of the championship - Galway were expected to go a long way. Certainly, an early-summer exit from Connacht was hardly anticipated. Not against Roscommon and not in Tuam.

But in a blistering 70 minutes, Roscommon shook Galway faith and optimism to the core. Their young midfielder, a 19-year-old debutant named Séamus O'Neill, had gone to town, giving a master class in fetching that the watching Seán Purcell must have appreciated through gritted teeth and kicking two points that had the force of haymakers. And Roscommon's corner forwards tormented the Galway full-back line. Nigel Dineen finished with 1-3, Dolan had 1-2.

"It was just a bad day at the office," John O'Mahony said afterwards, but outside the dressing-rooms and beside the wooden tables where local kids sold sweets and minerals, people made their dissatisfaction clear.

"We weren't all that surprised to come away with a win," remembered Dineen earlier this week. "We were working very hard then and were well organised by John Tobin. And coming from Tuam, John would have had a lot of knowledge about Galway.

"Stopping Michael Donnellan was central to our plan. Even then he tended to drift back and collect ball and move it through the field, linking with other players. Michael had a great engine, but we put Paul Noone - who was a fine cross-country runner - to man-mark him and he did a great job. It broke up Galway's game and the ball started to come into us. It wasn't aimless ball that was being sent in - it was thoughtful, placed ball, the kind of possession that forwards dream about. We knew their full-back line was unsettled."

Although the Galway team was vilified in general, Tomás Mannion was singled out as the chief culprit, suffering the misfortune of being switched from Dineen to Dolan's corner just as he was about to combust.

"Look, Tomás didn't have the best of experiences that day, but everyone knew he was a great defender before that game and remained so afterwards," said Dineen. "He recovered well enough to finish the year with an All Star, which says a lot about him."

In any event, Galway's troubles were not confined to the full-back line. At centre field, the novel pairing of Seán Ó Domhnaill and Joe Bergin was coming unglued in the heat.

"Séamie caught some savage ball that day," said Fergal O'Donnell, the senior Roscommon midfielder that afternoon. O'Donnell had been waiting a while for a victory against the aristocrats of the western game. He was on the Roscommon team that took Galway to a replay in 1998. Roscommon lost and then had all summer to watch as their neighbours marched to a famous All-Ireland. When the moment came three years later, he was on top of his game and had an eye-catching companion in O'Neill.

"He had come on against New York, but this was his first start and he just ate it up. I suppose Galway were at a disadvantage because Kevin Walsh was out injured. But going into the match, we were just hoping to get through it, to break some ball and hold our own. It was a surprise when things started going so strongly our way."

The victory was convincing, and many interpreted the game as the beginning of the end for the John O'Mahony era. True, they had the qualifiers to fall back on, but that was the maiden season of the experiment and all counties regarded them with a mixture of trepidation and suspicion.

"We were absolutely gutted," remembers Galway selector Pete Warren. "We maybe took things for granted going into that match. Many of us knew John Tobin as a close friend, but we just didn't see it coming, certainly not the manner of it. We were beaten out the gate and suddenly we had this qualifying system and nobody knew what to expect. So we had a long chat about it and our next game was up in Wicklow, a far cry from the Connacht championship. As it turned out, the qualifiers took us on a really exciting detour and we had quality games against Armagh and Cork, which brought us on a lot."

The Roscommon players would have been vaguely aware that Galway were somewhere out in the desert, still alive. But the old knock-out mentality persisted and they capitalised on that Tuam win by claiming the Connacht title. Croke Park beckoned. Then came the sting. In the quarter-finals, Galway drew Roscommon and the game was fixed for Castlebar on a Saturday evening.

"It felt like the kind of auld game you could be playing at any time of the year," says O'Donnell. "It didn't feel like any kind of reward for winning the provincial championship. We had been expecting to be in Croke Park, to give our supporters a day out and maybe play one of the Ulster teams. Just something different."

To add insult to injury, the provincial champions came into that match after five idle weeks spent waiting for the dog-fight of the qualifiers to finish. Galway emerged lean and ferocious and, almost inevitably, they turned the tables. Tuam had opened their eyes. Mannion was now operating at centre half, the position in which he would claim an All Star. The midfield pairing of Walsh and Donnellan was a perfect marriage of size, brain, skill and athleticism. It was a terribly subdued rematch. Galway took an iron grip and finished as 0-14 to 1-5 winners.

"We were devastated by that loss in Tuam and all the criticism," said John O'Mahony pointedly afterwards. "The players were stung by the things that were said, that we were underachievers and the like."

Tobin refused to dwell on the unfairness of the situation, saying, "Galway were extremely gracious when we beat them back in June and we would want to return the same."

But it was a bitter disappointment to Roscommon and hardly reflected well on a new system that was designed to encourage less-successful counties to greater heights. The draw had contributed to their suppression.

"It was unfortunate," says Warren. "Roscommon wanted at least to play in Croke Park and we certainly wouldn't have minded that. We also had the added incentive and a series of quality games behind us."

Galway steamed on, taking their second All-Ireland in four years and becoming the first back-door football team to take the title.

"At least that made it a bit easier for us," says O'Donnell. "We had probably achieved what we set out to that season, whereas Galway had the talent to push for another All-Ireland. Maybe if the draw had been a bit more favourable to us we could have gone a bit further ourselves. But we will never know."

Dineen does not believe the Roscommon of his generation peaked that day in Tuam, but he does concede that over the three years that followed, they had the talent to go a little further than they did. When John Maughan came in last autumn, Dineen was one of the many established names he erased from the county rota.

"I hoped to have another three years and I haven't retired, but that is John's decision," he said cheerfully this week. "I suppose people were complaining that some of the lads brought in weren't the right choice or whatever, but they deserve their chance. I am in no way bitter about it and I am always available. In the meantime, I'll be going along on Sunday. Why wouldn't I?"

He intends meeting up with Dolan and Shane Curran and the other senior boys whose services are no longer required and they will watch from behind the wire. However, it seems doubtful they will be treated to the heroics of five years ago.

"Galway are strong," admits Fergal O'Donnell. "Still, though, Roscommon seem to raise themselves for these games. There would be respect, but no great fear there."