LONDON boss Paul Coggins believes his native Roscommon have answered their critics after dumping Cavan out of the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers with an emphatic win on Saturday.
Coggins is well placed to comment on the outcome at Kingspan Breffni Park, where the visiting Rossies racked up a 3-17 to 1-16 victory, having come across both counties during London’s 2015 Championship campaign.
The Exiles were knocked out of the Connacht Championship by Roscommon before losing to Cavan in the qualifiers earlier this summer, both games having taken place at the Irish TV Grounds in Ruislip.
Roscommon, who were expected to challenge Mayo for the Connacht title on the back of a strong league campaign, suffered a surprise defeat to Sligo in their provincial semi-finals, but Coggins believes they’re now back on track.
“Roscommon showed that they’re a good football team who can still have a big say in the Championship going forward,” Coggins told The Irish Post.
“They played well [against Cavan] with some great goals and put up a big scoreline. They still have work to do, but that win will give them good confidence again.
“Roscommon have been playing well all year, they’ve gone up to Division One and although they didn’t have a good day against Sligo they’ve responded well in fairness to them.”
Cavan’s cause was unaided by the sending off of Tómas Corr, but Coggins knows the The Breffni Men didn’t do themselves justice having seen them beat his London side by 17 points last month.
He added: “Cavan never performed at the level that they can and, obviously, getting a man sent off had a fairly big bearing on the game.
“They had to come out and attack and they left themselves open, which wouldn’t be their preferred style of play – they would have preferred to keep it tight and make Roscommon do that.”
Roscommon will meet Fermanagh in Round 3A of the qualifiers at Brewster Park following Monday's draw.
