Roscommon coach Liam McHale admits he would have preferred to have avoided Clare in the draw for today's All-Ireland SFC Round 4A qualifier.

The former Mayo star spent three years coaching many of the current Clare squad when Micheal McDermott was manager and expects them to make life very difficult for a Roscommon team coming off the back of a heavy defeat to Galway just six days ago.

"I was hoping that we'd avoid Clare for obvious reasons. I'm delighted to see the boys doing so well. There are 10 or 11 there that I was coaching. I was hoping that we'd avoid each other and that we'd somehow find our feet and get back on track with a win," McHale told the Clare Champion ahead of the Salthill clash.

"It's a real tough one for us. The Clare boys are going in with two big wins. They had a great league campaign. They are in a much different place mentally than we are. We have to try and figure things out and try to re-enthuse these fellas and see can they come out and put in a performance on Saturday.

"The performance on Sunday was so bad that we have to focus in on ourselves and try and get our fellas right and hope that, on the day, we'll play well enough to win the game. The six-day turnaround is more mentally than physically tough."

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