By Daragh Small

Roscommon forward Donie Smith reckons they can beat the jinxed six-day turnaround from a provincial final loss and defeat Clare in the qualifiers tomorrow in Galway.

Losing provincial finalists struggle when they enter Round 4, but Roscommon will hope to buck the trend and come back to win six days after losing a provincial final.

Smith, the 23-year-old Boyle clubman, epitomised the highs and the lows for Roscommon in recent weeks as they slumped to a record Connacht final replay defeat against Galway.

He hit the crucial free that tied up the game at Pearse Stadium on July 10. However he was sent off last weekend as Roscommon were hammered by 11 points at MacHale Park.

Smith has scored 1-2 in the championship so far, having featured as a substitute against Sligo and both Galway games, and he believes Roscommon must stick to what they know best.

"We are just going to go out and give it our best shot. I know provincial losers don't have a great record, but we are going to try and turn that around and get back on the horse.

"We just have to assess the game against Galway and move on. Everyone needs to get back doing what we are good at and that's playing football.

"We are an expansive sort of team that like to play attacking football. We didn't show it against Galway but hopefully if we can get to Croke Park we can show off our talent and skills that we normally have," he said.

Roscommon last won a Connacht title in 2010 but have been a dominant force at U-21 level in the province since then, however they have failed to transfer that form to senior level in the summer months.

Smith, whose brother Enda also came off the bench against Galway, made his championship debut against Tyrone in 2012 and is one of a number of the underage stars that have not tasted major success in the championship.

A fourth round win against Clare would set them up for an outing in Croke Park, and an All-Ireland quarter-final and Smith says Roscommon need to draw on the pain of losing to Galway.

"We just didn't start quick enough, and had a mountain to climb. We were playing with the wind and couldn't get a foothold. They picked off serious scores too.

"It was very disappointing, we had a massive crowd travelling to Castlebar and that was difficult to take.

"While we didn't show it we know how good we are. It could have been a different story in the first game against Galway, we could have won.

"But that was a first Connacht final for a lot of lads, they will take a lot of lessons from it. The hurt of losing will hopefully drive them on in the next round and hopefully in the next few years."

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