"Better teams than us have gone to Markievicz Park and have been beaten. When Sligo play to their potential, they're a slick, fast, high scoring team."

Roscommon boss John Evans isn't counting his chickens before they've hatched. Despite beings odds on favourites, the Kerry native knows his team have a bit of work to do before they can start thinking about a Connacht SFC final against Mayo on Sunday, July 19th.

"They didn't end up being the highest scorers in Division Three for nothing," he added. "They have some lethal forwards and they're going to put us to the pin of our collars.

"We respect Sligo massively because we recognise how hard it is to come from where we've been. We're just as vulnerable as any other team going down there."

The primrose and blues opened their campaign with a 1-14 to 0-10 victory over London in Ruislip.

Evans has made two changes to his team with Ronan Stack (right half-back) and Conor Daly (right half-forward) included in their starting 15 with Donal Ward and Donie Shine dropping to the bench.

Niall Carew, meanwhile, is looking forward to his first championship test as Yeats County manager.

"We're in great shape," the former Waterford boss enthused.

"We'll have no excuses, we are where we want to be. It has been a big gap in terms of waiting for a championship game but there's no excuses as we've known that since October.

"Roscommon are hot favourites, in their heads they're way ahead of us. But we're itching to get started."

Carew and his selectors have named four championship debutants in their line-out -  defenders Daniel Maye and Eoin Flanagan, midfielder Cian Breheny and half-forward Criostoir Davey.

Midfielder Breheny is a nephew of team captain Mark.

Verdict - Roscommon.

Sligo team: Aidan Devaney; Ross Donovan, Kevin McDonnell, Daniel Maye; Keelan Cawley, Brendan Egan, Eoin Flanagan; Cian Breheny, Niall Murphy; Criostoir Davey, Mark Breheny, Neil Ewing; David Kelly, Pat Hughes, Adrian Marren.

Roscommon team: Darren O'Malley; Sean McDermott, Niall Carty, Neil Collins; Ronan Stack, Niall Daly, Ciaran Cafferkey; Ian Kilbride, Cathal Shine; Conor Daly, Cathal Cregg, Enda Smith; Diarmuid Murtagh, Senan Kilbride, Ciarain Murtagh.

Match details: Saturday; Markievicz Park; 7pm.

Referee: Maurice Deegan.

Odds: Sligo 3/1, Draw 8/1, Roscommon 4/11.

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