Enda Smith, Roscommon, and Eamonn Doherty, Donegal during the March 2016 Allianz Football League clash between the teams.
***Sunday February 12
Allianz Football League Division 1
Roscommon v Donegal, Dr Hyde Park, 2.30pm
Relieved to be finally back playing at Dr Hyde Park, Roscommon know how relevant Sunday’s clash with Donegal will be.
Both teams suffered opening round losses so the importance of the match won’t be lost on either outfit.
Remaining in the top flight is the objective for Roscommon and Donegal, who are dealing with significant retirements.
The departure of so many seasoned players has meant Kevin McStay and Rory Gallagher have altered their respective panels somewhat.
“It’s not just about the opening of the Hyde,” McStay admits. “This is just a big game. It’s not going to be simple. There are no easy games in this Division.
“But we’d want to be taking points on Sunday, otherwise we’ll be putting ourselves under lots of pressure.
“We are struggling a little bit for fitness levels. We were blowing a bit towards the end of last Sunday, but that’s a calculated gamble that we have taken.
“I’ll have to take responsibility for that one way or the other, but it’s with a view to having the team in good shape around April, May and June.”
Kerry overpowered Donegal for much of last Sunday’s game before Gallagher’s charges launched a late comeback mission which eventually fell short.
Despite the defeat, Gallagher took some positives. “We were saying that it could go one of two ways. Look, we fought back and showed great courage and conviction to come back at them, 1-17 most days would get you over the line most days.
“So as I said we are changing the way we play football over the last number of years. We are trying out a number of new players and there are going to be days like that so we are trying to marry the two together.
"With the forward line Kerry named we could make a decision to camp in our own half and try and get a result. But we have to look at the bigger picture and that is what we tried to do.”
It will be interesting to monitor how Donegal change their style in the coming months, but leaving the Hyde with two points is their brief this weekend. Roscommon will be similarly pumped up so a revealing 70 minutes is imminent.
ROSCOMMON: Colm Lavin; Seanie McDermott, Thomas Featherston, Niall McInerney; Ronan Stack, Sean Mulloly, John McManus; Kevin Higgins, Tadhg O'Rourke; Shane Killoran, Ciarain Murtagh, Enda Smith; Donie Smith, Fintan Cregg, Conor Devaney.
