Armagh and Roscommon meet in a winner-takes-all relegation play off on Sunday afternoon and both with be eager to avoid the drop.
The pair were promoted alongside each other last season, with the Rossie’s finishing top of Division Two.
They defeated second placed Armagh along the way winning, 3-10 to 0-15 in the first game back post lockdown.
Roscommon also got the better of Kieran McGeeney’s side in their thrilling 2018 qualifier match, which finished 2-22 to 1-19.
Jim McCorry was part of the Orchard’s backroom team for those two encounters and told The Sideline Eye Podcast how Roscommon hold a real goalscoring threat.
“The goals make the difference, as they did last year in October when we played them in the Athletic Grounds. They’re a team who can get goals, the old adage ‘goals win games’, they scored three goals.
The annoying thing from a coaching point of view, and Kieran (McGeeney) would tell you this as well and the players would tell you, they were all very preventable”.
“The first goal, when he (Conor Cox) came along the endline. When you have a player on the endline, he shouldn’t get inside you at all and he should be put over the endline. The ball was played in and stuck in the back of the net”.
“They got a penalty in that one as well, a very rash tackle by James Morgan, and the other goal came quickly at the same time”.
That game was evenly matched, as McCorry points out, but it was the three-pointers that saw Roscommon triumph.
“In fact, I was looking at some of the stuff on it. They had one more possession in that game than us, they had four more attacks that us, they had three more shots, but we had two more scores. The goals were the difference.
That was certainly something I think for this game coming up, is to try and ensure that they don’t get in for goals again”.
“That has been the difference in my view with Roscommon, they’re a team who can get goals as they did against Kerry as well in their last game”.
The former Armagh player, manager and coach checked off some of the danger men who will threaten the home sides goal this weekend.
“The important bit is that they (the Armagh defence) don’t switch off against the likes of an Enda Smith or Murtagh, Donie Smith, all those guys.
The Murtagh brothers (Ciaran and Diarmuid), the Smith brothers, they can score, and (Conor) Devaney who came on against Kerry, scored a goal late on in the game”
“They have strength on the bench as well, who can put the ball in the net and take scores for them so it’s going to be difficult.
“They have plenty of firepower there, they’ll be well organised, and this is a do or die situation”.
