Sligo are looking forward to a second trip to Croke Park this Saturday. There had been a suspicion the county might feel aggrieved at having to travel to headquarters to play Dublin.

"We're happy enough," said county secretary Tommy Kilcoyne. "After waiting 26 years to get back to Croke Park, we are anxious not to have to wait so long again."

Manager Peter Ford, who has led Sligo to a National Football League semi-final as well as the fourth round of the All-Ireland qualifiers, was also happy enough but did sound a quizzical note:

"There's great excitement and it's great to be going back to Croke Park. But I'd thought venues were meant to be neutral and this means Dublin are the only team to get a home venue at this level of the competition."

In fairness to the Games Administration Committee, Dublin's home ground is not Croke Park and the county hasn't played its League matches there for six years. Kildare, whom Sligo eliminated 10 days ago, are arguably the team most familiar with Croke Park in recent years.

Ford does believe Sunday's match will differ from the Kildare experience. "It will be different. Kildare were quiet enough and by the time we played the crowd was down to about 25,000. It's going to be about double that the next day."

Before playing Kildare, the Sligo players familiarised themselves with the surroundings at the ground. "It worked out very well. We went to Croke Park on the Friday evening on our way down. We went into the dressing-room we'd be using and spent quite a bit of time there getting the feel of the place. Then players got to walk the pitch.

"It took the wonder out of it all for them. The only hassle we got was that two of our cars were broken into while we were in there. But on the day of the match, we were very relaxed.

"Anyway, I think it affects older players more than younger players, who often don't find it intimidating. Older fellas are thinking, 'this could be my last time here', or remembering how they fecked up when they were there before."

Ford is delighted with the progress his team has made in the qualifiers after the narrow defeat by Mayo in the Connacht semi- final. Since then, victories over Carlow and Kildare have brought the county to within one win of the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

"The time a team makes real progress is when it's preparing for championship matches. We improved between playing Mayo and playing Carlow and again before playing Kildare. We'll have to raise it again to take on Dublin.

"But this is the time of the year when a team takes off, training in the summer evenings as a championship run goes on."

Tommy Kilcoyne reports a big interest in the match within the county. "We've been allocated 8,500 tickets, including 500 family tickets, and we'll sell them all. The last day we sold 5,000 tickets."