By John Harrington

When Strokestown won the double of Minor and U-21 Roscommon football titles in 2012, expectancy quickly followed in the wake of success.

A glut of players who played for Roscommon underage teams, some of whom would also make the leap to senior inter-county, had come through together and the future looked seriously bright.

It wasn’t so much a question of whether this underage success would lead to the same in the senior club ranks, but when.

But, like many clubs before them, Strokestown discovered that alchemising underage glory into senior achievement can be a trickier task than you might like or hope.

In the end it took all of 10 years for their golden generation to finally deliver that elusive Roscommon senior title and only after many in the parish had come to the conclusion it wasn’t going to happen at all.

For players like Colin Compton who was part of that U-21 winning team in 2012, finally reaching the promised land felt like a release.

“Yeah, everyone expected the minor and U-21 titles to materialise into senior county titles,” he admits.

“It hadn’t and it was a tough road. We were maybe naïve, we thought it would come a lot handier to us when we first came on the scene.

“When it didn’t happen maybe we lost a bit of confidence. But we kept at it and 10 years later, we finally got over the line. It probably makes it all the sweeter.

“It was pretty special. Twenty years is a long time for a town like Strokestown without a county title.

“The manner that we won it and the road we took to get there made it all the more special.”

So, why did it finally happen for Strokestown this year? How did a group of players that had never even contested a Roscommon Final find the wherewithal to win one?

“We had the right management team in place,” says Compton. “John [Rogers] and his management team came in last year and we made huge strides.

“We were very competitive. We got knocked out by Brigid’s, who would always be there or thereabouts. But we gave them a good game. So we knew we had made good improvements and this year was just about building on that.

“We had a rough start to the year with injuries and form. We ended up getting relegated in the league. But our luck started changing in June/July. Injuries started clearing up. A couple of results fell our way.

“We were a kick of a ball away from getting knocked out of the competition in the group stages. We rode our luck to get out of the group. Once we got to the knockout stages, that’s where we wanted to be. We always felt if we turned up on form we would be a match for anyone.

“We needed a wondergoal in the quarter-final from Ciaran Regan to get us through [against Oran]. We took huge momentum from that and went into the Roscommon Gaels game underdogs again and turned them over.

“We just produced the goods that day, Paddy Rogan scored a wondergoal as well. In the final we were underdogs again but we had so much momentum and belief built up that we knew if the game was in the melting point going down the home stretch, we would be able to come out on top.”

Strokestown’s nail-biting one-point win over Boyle in the Roscommon SFC Final produced an unlikely hero in the shape of Tony Lavin.

A quad injury meant his late substiute's appearance was his first of the season and just two minutes after running onto the pitch he kicked the winner with his weaker left foot.

“It’s fairy-tale stuff and it’s something every club player in the country could take great heart from,” says Compton of Lavin’s winner.

“It was just a run of injuries. He couldn’t get the fitness going. Every time he was coming back, Tony, he was breaking down again.

“Probably form as well, when he did come back fit he wasn’t being picked. But he kept at it. It was some finish for him, to come on for your first couple of minutes and kick the score to win your club the county title for the first time in 20 years.

“He tore his right quad, he couldn’t kick with his left. I don’t know if John Rogers was aware of that. If he was he might not have put him on! It all worked out.”

Compton has had some great days with Roscommon but he doesn’t hesitate when asked whether winning a county senior championship medal with his club tops any achievement that came before.

“I think it's more special to be honest,” he says. “I have two Connacht medals with Roscommon and the county medal was the one that always eluded me. But now that I've got it...I think it still hasn't fully sunk in.

“It'll take another few months to really take it all in. I have to say I think the County medal means a bit more. It's the guys you went to school with since you're five. It's the guys you've been playing since that age.

“It's the people that you're seeing every day of the week. The people who coached you from a toddler. It's for your parents. It's your community, your friends and family.

“Obviously Roscommon GAA is its own community but the Strokestown GAA community is a bit tighter knit. There's a lot of special people who've helped me along the way personally and being able to give those people a day out in Strokestown in colours made it extra special.”

Strokestown are very much the underdogs going into Sunday’s AIB Connacht Club SFC semi-final against Galway champions Maigh Cuilinn who have already taken out Westport in very impressive fashion.

But Strokestown will surely take encouragement from the fact that last year’s Roscommon champions, Pádraig Pearses, went on to win the provincial title too.

“Yeah, absolutely,” says Compton. “Look, there's pedigree in Roscommon football. St. Brigid's in 2013 were the kingpins of Connacht and went on to win an All-Ireland. Padraig Pearses came out on top last year. We know going into the Connacht that we'll be underdogs, but we're fine with that.

“We were underdogs the whole way through the Roscommon championship. Obviously the goal for the year was a county final but we've got our celebrations out of the way, the dust has settled, and it's only in our nature to want more.

“Now we're representing the people of Roscommon as well as the people of Strokestown so we're going to give it a good lash, we're going to give it everything we have. I do think that if we turn up against any team and perform we won't be that far away.”