Gay Sheerin has been through the hoop with Roscommon on many occasions including an unsuccessful bid for All-Ireland final victory over Kerry in 1980.

Relieved of the unenviable task of guarding the Roscommon net as a player and now Roscommon's team manager, he has no doubt of the quality of his charges as they attempt to beat Galway in the replay of the Connacht final on Saturday evening in Hyde Park.

Unusually for a Connacht team this will be their fourth championship match this season. The drawn match against Galway was their third tough match having been taken to a replay by Sligo earlier.

Sheerin believes that these matches have brought about great improvements in the performance and morale of the team. "Of course we have improved. We have made great strides in all of those matches and I see no reason why people have written us off in all of those matches and made Galway such hot favourites. It doesn't make a lot of sense," he said.

Having come through the drawn match against Galway which was played in bad weather on a Tuam pitch which cut up badly, he is hoping for a dry, calm day. "It was miserable and neither team really showed what they could do. The weather here (in Roscommon) at the moment is poor with some heavy rain and we are hoping for an improvement before Saturday.

"We realise that we are facing a big challenge. Galway were made favourites after they beat Mayo and we have no problems with that, but I believe that we have not been given enough credit for what we have achieved so far and the odds of 5 to 2 against us is ridiculous.

"For some reason even our own supporters don't seem to have taken us seriously. But we have improved no end since the National League campaign and I believe that we will improve even further.

"The three championship matches we have played have allowed us to pinpoint our problems and weaknesses and we have worked very hard on ironing out our problems. No doubt Galway have watched us closely and they know more about us than we know about them but the pressure is on them rather than on us.

"Galway have had to wait five weeks for a competitive match after beating Mayo while we got some serious football under our belts. Galway must have become stagnant during that long wait. We showed against Sligo in the drawn game that we could fight hard and we came back late in the match to draw.

"That helped us to get over the disappointment of being beaten by Sligo last year and we went back to Markievicz Park determined to put that match behind us and we did.

"We have had a very settled team and the morale is very high. There are several players in the list of subs who are challenging strongly for places and I will have no problem in putting players on if we need to lift the game. As well as that we have had three serious matches in six weeks," he says.

It comes as no surprise to find that he identifies Galway's goalkeeper, Martin McNamara, as one of the really strong points in their team. "It is natural that, as a former goalkeeper myself, that I should say that but he has been a very important part of the Galway effort so far. In the match against Mayo he made at least three crucial saves. He did, more or less the same, against us.

"In addition to that his distribution of the ball, even after making a superb save, is very clever. He is a very cool operator under pressure. I'll be telling our guys to put the ball over the bar and forget about the goals," Sheerin said with an element of tongue in cheek. "He is on top of his game at the moment and I like his approach a lot," he added with genuine admiration. Sheerin identifies Galway's attack as the strong element of their team but then added that attacks cannot operate without a constant supply of good possession.

"We have a job to do and we know how to do it. We have a well-balanced team and a steady team. We expect very strong support on Saturday evening. Our supporters have come around to our way of working. The fact that we are playing at home is worth a few points to us at least.

"We have done a lot of our training in Hyde Park and that helps us to be able to judge things like the way the ball bounces and so on. I would expect a crowd close on 30,000 if the weather is fine and it should be a great occasion. Our programme so far has given us great encouragement and with our home support I am confident that we can win," he says.