McShea's Say: Donegal need to be on high alert of serious Roscommon challenge

On Sunday in Roscommon, the home fans will expect to see their team play with renewed vigour and return to their attacking speed and style after their poor recent performance against Dublin. 

Five games into this campaign, Rossie followers must be happy with how their team is going. 

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Before the start of the league, they saw Division 1 survival as their main objective, but this league has seen the team play with style, apart from their flat display against the Dubs last time out. 

Players like Daire Cregg, Dermot Murtagh, Enda Smith, Sean Lambe and Colm Neary have played excellent football this year. 

And the team may still need a positive result against Donegal or Mayo to ensure their status in the top tier going forward. 

Even against Dublin, in their only defeat in this campaign, Roscommon squandered numerous scoring chances to run up a big score. 

While most teams can have one off day in a league campaign, Roscommon teams are noted for their ability to show a huge disparity between their best performance and their worst. 

The top teams, even when they are not on song, generally have an inbuilt ability to stay competitive. 

One thing for sure is that even on an off day, Roscommon teams never lose the grit or the fight, so this will be a fiery home side that Donegal will encounter on Sunday. 

Every Roscommon team plays with controlled aggression and they have a thirst for turnovers. 

Against Dublin, Roscommon had the St. Brigid's players back in their ranks after their great club campaign. 

While not at their best in their first game back, that match will have brought them on, and I would expect them to be much better against Donegal. 

Donegal are in a very good place as they head into the west this Sunday and sitting on top of the league table. 

The team has displayed great maturity and an excellent desire to prevail in every match they have played this year. 

It is particularly gratifying to see many of our younger players get the chance to cut their teeth at the top level of inter-county football. 

And the big positive is that they have displayed a natural ability to look comfortable at this level of football as the Donegal squad looks much stronger than last year because of this inclusion of such youthful talent. 

No doubt the question of controlled discipline would have been a hot topic at Donegal training in the weeks since the Galway game. 

The one disappointing aspect of that display was the red and black cards picked up by team captain Michael Langan and Stephen McMenamin. 

To their credit, Donegal teams, traditionally, don’t have a bad record in this regard, but with the incredible fitness that is now the norm in the inter-county arena, any slip up in this area has the potential for disaster if repeated. 

I would expect that Sunday will see Donegal again in experimental mood to some degree, but now that we are on the cusp of a league final, when a win would secure our place, most of our regulars will get the start in Roscommon. 

The positive impact that our bench made against Galway in Ballyshannon went a long way to maintaining our unbeaten run in 2026. 

And while I expect yet another stern examination of Donegal's credentials this Sunday, the quality of our squad is stronger than Roscommon's and I expect that by Sunday evening it should be time to book accommodation for the league final, but only after a very tough examination from the home side.