​By John Harrington

New York manager Justin O'Halloran is convinced his team can pull off an almighty shock by beating Roscommon in Sunday's Connacht preliminary round match at Gaelic Park.

He has drummed it home to his players at every single training session that they are on the cusp of creating history.

“A minute to go and we are five points up — that’s what we’ve been breeding into them for the last three months,” says the Cavan native. “Five points up with one minute to go and not losing. Well sure, you have to be confident. There’s not much point if you’re not. We have the players. It’s just a matter of whether on the day we can produce it.

“We can play football at training on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday — it’s only a matter of going out and playing it at game time. There’d be no point doing it if we weren’t going to try to win it. That’s what it’s all about — winning. And if we can’t instill confidence in the players, there is no point in togging out. We’re confident anyway.”

The closest New York ever came to beating a visiting team in the Connacht Championship came in 2010. But for two red-cards in the second-half, they might well have turned over Galway. O'Halloran was a New York selector that day, and what gives him confidence ahead of Sunday is that he is convinced this year's New York team is as good as that one was.

"The 2010 team - we are pretty much on a par with them," he says. "That was one of our best teams in a while and hopefully we can produce it on the day. Strength-wise and physical-wise we are the same calibre."

Since that 2010 match, New York have tended to struggle physically in these matches, but O'Halloran is not worried they will be blown off the park by Roscommon's superior strength and conditioning.

“From what I can gather from the players nowadays, they are all into strength and conditioning anyway," he says. "They all want to look good even if they don’t play football. It’s not like 15 years ago — just go out training and then go drinking. It’s all about looking good. It’s a different world we are in."

O'Halloran's hand has been strengthened this year by the addition of Johnny Duane and Jonathan Glynn who played county football and hurling respectively for Galway last year.

"(Glynn and Duane) are a huge addition," says O'Halloran. "They are great athletes, great talkers and great team-mates and they know how to play football. That helps. PJ Banville is a huge loss and a few other lads didn't make it and we picked up a few new lads. It has probably evened itself out."

Were New York to be heavily beaten on Sunday, then the question of just how sustainable this preliminary round match is would likely be a topic of debate again. O'Halloran is adamant that New York can prevent that chatter by winning on Sunday, and believes it is vital for GAA in the Big Apple that they be allowed continue to compete in Connacht.

"It's the biggest day for GAA in New York every year and sooner or later it will happen that we'll take a scalp and hopefully it'll be this year," he says. "And if it does, it's only going to get bigger and bigger every year, so I would love to see it keep going and I'm sure 99 per cent of the people in New York would love to see it keep going."