All-Ireland Football Qualifier: Cavan 0-05 0-16 Roscommon

Cavan's Micheal Lyng attempts to halt Roscommon's Neil Collins at Breffni Park

Dismal Cavan crashed out of the Football Championship as they were beaten 0-16 to 0-5 by Roscommon in the All-Ireland qualifier at Breffni Park.

Roscommon bossed the first half but poor shooting restricted their interval-lead to 0-3 to 0-2.

However, eight unanswered Roscommon points after the break ended the game as a contest.

Cavan were unable to break out of their self-imposed defensive strait-jacket as their season ended in ignominy.

The Breffni men were without key injured forwards Cian Mackey and Martin Dunne and the influential Killian Clarke but the absence of the trio could still not excuse this abject display by Terry Hyland's side.

Roscommon also went into the game minus their most renowned attacker, the latest cruciate ligament victim Donie Shine, but John Evans's players showed why they had lost by the narrowest of margins to last year's All-Ireland Finalists Mayo five weeks ago.

Cavan went all the way to last year's All-Ireland quarter-finals but after gaining promotion to Division 2 during the Spring, the wheels have come off the Breffni wagon in alarming fashion in recent months.

Roscommon looked the hungrier outfit right from the off in Saturday's game although some dreadful shooting meant they didn't open their account until the 17th minute when Diarmaid Murtagh pointed a free.

Cathal Cregg had been guilty of a few bad early misses and scores remained at a premium during the remainder of the opening period as Martin Reilly didn't notch the home team's first point until the 29th minute.

Despite playing with a first-hand wind advantage, the defensively-obsessed Breffni side persisted with a ponderous possession game instead of letting the ball in early towards Eugene Keating, who appeared their only genuine attacking outlet.

David Keenan's impressive wing-back play was helping Roscommon dominate in the middle third of the field but the misses continued to mount up before Enda Smith stormed up from centre-field to register a third point for the Connacht county on 33 minutes.

Keating swung over a fine score before the break which left Roscommon only a point clear at the interval.

However, Roscommon showed Cavan how to use the elements after the restart as they notched eight unanswered scores.

These included consecutive points from the impressive Smith while Cregg and the lively Murtagh also found their range after firing some dismal first-half wides.

David Givney's introduction for Micheal Lyng on 45 minutes appeared at least 20 minutes too late as the game had already slipped out of reach for the home side.

Cavan fans were already leaving Breffni Park more than 10 minutes before the finish as a season which had appeared so full of promise a couple of months ago, ended with scarcely a whimper.

ALL-IRELAND FOOTBALL QUALIFIER RESULTS

CAVAN 0-05 0-16 ROSCOMMON

LAOIS 4-09 3-17 TIPPERARY

SLIGO 0-12 0-10 LIMERICK

ALL-IRELAND HURLING QUALIFIER RESULTS

WEXFORD 2-25 2-22 CLARE [AET]

TIPPERARY 5-25 1-20 OFFALY