Davy Burke admitted some of the criticism of his side during their league campaign had been "fair" after they overcame London in their Connacht SFC first round game in Ruislip.
Roscommon, recently promoted from Division 2 but with just one win in their previous five games, only led by three points at half-time after a strong second quarter showing from the home side, though this was partly attributable to the strong gale at London's back in the opening half.
At the change of ends, Roscommon eased through the gears, Ciaran Murtagh adding the second goal, to go with his brother Diarmuid's effort in the first half.
"We were 1-07 to 0-01 up very early," Burke recounted, in conversation with RTÉ Sport's Darren Frehill afterwards.
"We were against a gale. And I'm not sure if being in the stand done it justice. And then we lost the foothold in the middle and in fairness to them, they kicked six or seven nearly unanswered so they got right back into it.
"I was delighted for the last six-seven minutes of the half, we kicked on and got 1-10 to 0-10 up.
"We came in three up. There was never a minute's panic. We knew it was probably a 10... it could even have been a 15-point breeze really, and we knew once we squeezed their kickouts, they'd have enough.
"Our plan was to be professional. There's a carnival atmosphere over here. Don't get distracted, lads. Always in Ruislip, there's a breeze. Whether we had it (in the first half) or are against it, just stick with it and we'll get the job done."
While Roscommon secured promotion back to the top tier at the first time of asking, they did so in a less convincing manner than many had predicted at the outset, with losses to Meath and Cavan and then a final day draw to the already relegated Westmeath.
Burke himself had been scathing of the team after their home defeat to Cavan on the penultimate weekend, announcing they'd no business being in a league final - comments he subsequently put down to frustration.
On the RTÉ GAA podcast last week, Dessie Dolan said there was an air of stagnation around Roscommon, despite their promotion and that they hadn't fixed their past defensive issues.
"Yeah, I think we've been written off everywhere!" Burke said. "Sure, we're happy enough with that. We'll keep our head down and keep working hard.
"Ah look, some of the criticism is probably fair too. You give a bit, you get a bit.
"We're rolling on into a Connacht semi-final in two weeks time. We're looking forward to hopefully being in Salthill in a couple of weeks.
"If Galway were to win tomorrow night, we'll be heading to Salthill on Easter Sunday. And sure, happy days. That's what we're here to do. Ultimately, what everyone in that dressing room wants to do is to play big games for Roscommon. If we're heading to Salthill, it'll be all guns blazing."
While London's challenge eventually faded, their native-born stalwart Liam Gallagher wrote his name into history as the first scorer of a two-pointer in championship football.
It was Gallagher's two-pointer in the 14th minute which kick-started London's first-half rally, after a slow start with the breeze.
"I have to admit, being the first two-point scorer wasn't on my mind as I kicked it. I was just happy to get our team off the mark at the time," Gallagher told RTÉ Sport.
"Nice to go down as a pub quiz question for the future!"
While they only trailed by three at the break, the sluggish start where they gave Roscommon a nine-point head start against a massive gale would haunt them.
"We're probably quite scarred from this occasion the last two years," says Gallagher. "We took a bad beating from Galway last year.
"The magnitude of the occasion can sometimes get to boys who haven't played at this level before. That was probably reflected in some of our early attacks, we gave the ball away a bit softly. I guess my score gave us a foothold and we pushed on.
"It's just to go toe-to-toe with a team who got promoted to Division 1. Even though the scoreline wasn't too pretty at the end, we can say we got to half-time and gave them a good scare."
While the annual Ruislip championship is always a bumper occasion - yielding wins in 1977 and, famously, in 2013 - it's really a sideshow from the main event for Gallagher's team, which is the Tailteann Cup.
"It's massive. What's interesting is we're at home but there's usually more of an away crowd. Which reflects the Irish diaspora across the world. I think it's something quite special and something quite unique to Gaelic football.
"We'll have a few weeks now to prepare for Tailteann Cup. That's our real focus. We try not to take too much out of this game. It's a big occasion but Tailteann Cup is the level we're at. And we see that as a good potential pathway to get to Croke Park, which is ultimately the goal for this team."
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