Performance the key for Smith against Galway

Cian Smith has expressed his satisfaction that no stone has been left unturned as the Roscommon U-20 footballers begin their Connacht championship game with a difficult test against Galway in Tuam Stadium on Wednesday evening. Throw-in is at 5. p.m..

With 17 of last year’s panel that were edged out in the provincial final against Mayo, including nine starters — Patrick Gaynor, team captain Eoghan Carthy, vice-captains Niall Heneghan and Keelan Kelly, Eoin Collins, Niall Higgins, Conor Grogan, John Curran, John McGuinness — the expectation is that Roscommon can, at least, reach the knockout stages of this year’s championship.

But Smith, who is in his second year at the helm, will be leaning on his experience from 12 months ago to ensure that Roscommon don’t put the cart before the horse for a campaign where much of the focus will, inevitably, be on Mayo and the “Kobe (McDonald) Factor”.

“The big thing with our group is that we’d be happy with what we’ve done in terms of our training and our work to date. We feel that we’ll be there or thereabouts.

“But, with any underage team, it’s all about on the day. There were times last year when I thought we might have been struggling, or a bit low, coming into games, and we ended up being excellent. Then there were other games when we came in on a high, thinking we’d all the work done, and we were a bit off.

“Personally, I suppose I know what to expect and know what not to expect. We’d be more organised when it comes to challenge games this year because it’s easier when you know the lie of the land in terms of dealing with schools, colleges and players with injuries.

“The biggest eye opener for me last year was learning to manage lads in terms of all that they have going on. Jason Doherty is our strength and conditioning coach, and he’s excellent minding the lads and making sure that they aren’t doing too much. It’s a fine balance but I think we’ve found a happy medium,” he revealed.

Smith has James Duignan, Tomás Gilleran, Damien Tiernan, Ray Hannon and Darren O’Malley (goalkeeping coach) as part of his management team. Diarmuid O’Higgins, Shay McGuinness, Dean Casey, Mark Carroll and Sam Hannon, who were part of last year’s minor football team, have graduated to this year’s U-20 panel, although Hannon and Cathal Enright will miss the Galway game at least through injury.

“We had Mayo away first last year, it’s Galway in Tuam this year. But Sligo are still there with their underage pedigree from recent years, and the whole Leitrim/Roscommon thing ends up taking on a life of its own. Leitrim will always raise their game to play Roscommon.

“It’s a great challenge for our lads to go over to Tuam Stadium and see if we can put in a performance. Once we get a performance, we’ll be happy enough,” he insisted.

After Wednesday evening’s game against Galway, Roscommon are at home against Sligo before travelling to Mayo on the following Wednesday. A bye before hosting Leitrim is satisfactory as far as Smith is concerned, albeit trying to get something from games on the road against Galway and Mayo will be an onerous task.

“Last year, we had two games before the break and two games afterwards, which was ideal. Most managers will tell you that once you don’t have the bye in the first week, they’d be happy enough. If you miss out on the first week and end up making a semi-final or a final, that’s six weeks in a row, which is tough going,” he conceded.

Needless to say, hitting the ground running against Galway would be the perfect way to start.