Gaelic Games / Focus on Sligo footballers:  Sligo football may have had its share of disappointments but at least it is never boring. More than most counties, Sligo's fortune over the last six years have mirrored the possibilities and frustrations of the new, second-chance All-Ireland championship.

This year's campaign begins, however, on a familiar note of trepidation with a visit to Galway, the leading lights of Connacht football whom Sligo have not beaten for 21 years.

In fact, Sligo have managed to beat Galway only three times in the history of the championship, a bleak statistic that ought to look slightly better: they took John O'Mahony's All-Ireland champions to a draw in the summer of 1999 and fell by three points in the Connacht final of 2002 on a wet and miserable day in Castlebar that was distinguished by the singular ambition of Eamonn O'Hara and the thoroughbred skill of Brazil's Ronaldo at the World Cup final in Japan.

Sandwiched between those two nearly afternoons stands one of the blackest afternoons in the lopsided history of these counties, when Sligo were shocked and exposed in Markievicz Park on a score of 0-22 to 0-4. The home team failed to score in the first half and the embarrassment was heightened by the fact they had enjoyed an encouraging lead and had enjoyed the forensic preparation for which Mickey Moran is famed.

It was, as they say, one of those days and, as veteran Paul Durcan put it, "a real kick in the teeth for Sligo football".

But just over a year later, they were smiling again. And how. The acquisition of Peter Ford proved to be the best thing to happen Sligo football in years. The Ballindine man's casual confidence and easy way with the players helped them to forget the mortification of that afternoon in Sligo town and in the lottery of the qualifiers, they were gifted with a dream tie against Kildare on a double-header afternoon in Croke Park.

It was the county's first visit to Jones' Road since Barnes Murphy's Connacht champions played against Kerry in a subdued (3-13 to 0-5) All-Ireland semi-final in that seminal year of 1975. This time, they won, wearing an impressive all-black strip and playing with true conviction under the assured guidance of Ford.

BACK IN THE HAT in The Sunday Game, they were paired with Dublin, which meant another afternoon centre stage but in very daunting circumstances. Galway played Armagh on the same billing and although his team only survived thanks to a dramatic last-minute winner from Paul Clancy, Galway manager O'Mahony made it to the Sligo dressingroom to wish his neighbours well.

The original plan was that Galway, if victorious, would form a line of honour for Sligo in the tunnel. That could not happen as the counties were located in changing rooms at opposite ends of the ground.

"It was the gesture that was important to us. It showed he was thinking of us. And Galway had been in a tight scrap, I am sure Sligo was a thousand miles away in his mind," said Ford afterwards. "So it meant a lot to us. It was a Connacht thing."

SLIGO WERE WELL BEATEN by Dublin that day but they were recognised as a team on the up. So 2002 was their year to deliver and although their achievements look all the more impressive in retrospect, there is also the sense they could have finished with more. They played with inhibition and nerves in that soaking Connacht final until the last quarter when O'Hara went on the rampage.

Trailing 0-10 to 0-3 against Tyrone at half-time in the fourth-round qualifiers, the Caherlistrane man gave the most inspirational half hour of his life, running the show from midfield and demanding a Sligo comeback which blindsided the Ulster men and proved enough to dump them from the championship.

That was a significant match. It demonstrated the startling improvement in Sligo's graph and also led to the appointment of Mickey Harte as Tyrone manager. Sligo went back to Croke Park for the All-Ireland quarter-finals to take Armagh, then regarded as an uncertain force, to a replay. Joe Kernan's team scraped through and although Sligo basked in the glow of a rare summer of adventure, they had to marvel at what might have been as Armagh went on to claim the All-Ireland.

That year was the high point: a year later, Sligo were well beaten by Donegal in the qualifiers and by that evening, Ford knew he had done all he could.

James Kearns and Dominic Corrigan have been in charge since, with the 1-11 to 1-10 win which Corrigan enjoyed over Kildare - it came courtesy of another brave Sligo rally - the high point of those years.

However, the surreal manner of Corrigan's sacking on Valentine's night after bad league defeats to Tipperary and Waterford suggested the football in the county had reached crisis point. The Fermanagh man was understandably dismayed at the nature of his sacking, being informed he was no longer wanted minutes before a training session, a situation he described as "like vigilante stuff".

THE SLIGO COUNTY BOARD did their best to gloss over the dismissal, issuing a statement that the executive had wanted to inform Corrigan of their decision to his face and assuring no insult had been intended. It was into that unpromising situation that Tommy Breheny stepped and his feat of guiding the players to successive wins over Westmeath, Wicklow and Antrim has been instrumental in restoring a degree of stability and ambition within the squad.

"The league was very difficult for us and the managerial upheaval was very unsettling for the players," captain Noel McGuire admitted this week. "But since Tommy took over on a permanent basis, the squad have been very focused."

The Easkey man was one of those who thrived under Ford and although he said that all Sligo football people still had great time for their former manager, they would be doing their best to disappoint him tomorrow. Breheny and Ford will probably share a few words when they shake hands tomorrow. Breheny was a player for Ford at Summerhill when the Sligo school reached the All-Ireland final of 1985 and acknowledges Ford as an important influence on his sporting life.

Although Ford has also spoken fondly of his time with Sligo, his ambition is wedded to Galway now and the Sligo team have changed considerably since his last game. It will be business as usual, with nobody anticipating anything other than another Galway victory tomorrow.

Afterwards though, Ford and Galway will be rooting hard for Sligo. As he said in the heady days when the Yeats County took on the world, "it's a Connacht thing."