It's been easy to write off Leitrim this summer. Before they met Roscommon, no one gave them much of a chance. No one argued either. On Sunday they meet a Galway side perilously close to their All-Ireland winning form and no one is giving them any chance.

Mention this to Ciaran Murray and you cause no offence. Leitrim's centre back has been around just about long enough to take these things for granted. "Sure, we're well used to that," he says. "We just don't let it get to us."

The victory over Roscommon earlier this month was both critical and heartening. Ever since Leitrim's brief flirt with the Connacht title in 1994, the county has been floored with disappointment, firstly with two successive narrow defeats to Galway and then another crushing, 14-point loss in 1998. Hype had quickly been replaced by hope.

"That win over Roscommon was very important for us. There were five years there in the doldrums, but we had done an awful lot of hard work this year. The players were all confident and the manager was confident. Of course everybody still had us written off. This was our way of getting back.

"I know we let in three goals the last day, but we never panicked. At no stage did we think we weren't going to beat them. But we can't let three goals in against Galway and I know we'll have to improve."

When Murray joined the Leitrim panel at 18 for the start of the 199495 league campaign, the county was still buzzing from the summer of 1994 when victory over Mayo had given them their first Connacht title since 1927 - and only their second ever. The team were on a high and so were the expectations.

Then they met Galway at the start of the championship the following year, and, despite being up by two points with two minutes remaining, Galway finished ended up winning by a point. The manager at the time was John O'Mahony and he gave it another year before deciding he had taken them as far as he could. There were two more years of backroom changes before Joe Reynolds came in for last year's championship.

Reynolds was a selector with O'Mahony on the 1994 team and Murray believes that he knows this Leitrim team better than anyone. "He's the kind of manager you'd like to do well for," he says.

"Sure, Galway looked sharp and we know it's a massive task. Everyone has written us off again, but mostly because of what they did to Sligo.

"To be honest, I felt sorry for Sligo. They didn't do themselves justice because I know they're not that bad. We played them in challenge games before and they were really looking forward to playing Galway. It was just one of those days when nothing went right for them." Leitrim were the last county to see football action this summer, taking on Roscommon on July 2nd and long after a number of counties had already said goodbye to the championship. It was a situation that worked both ways: they were able to make the most of the long summer evenings with extended training sessions, but it wasn't always easy to keep the focus with so much of the opposition already on the move.

Now they are a closer unit than some people might think. "The team is still in a building phase," he says, "although I do think we have a nice blend now. There are four or five players there from the 1994 side and a lot of youth as well. But we're certainly not an old side."

If there was to be a crack in the team's momentum, it could have come with the 12-week suspension handed down to Colin Regan after his reckless blow to Francie Grehan in the semi-final. Murray, however, is assured that morale remains unhindered.

"We both came into the squad about the same time and I know it was hard for him. The whole incident was so out of character and he knows that. He's never been sent off on his life. "But I don't think it set us back at all. Everyone rallied around him and it didn't knock us off our focus for one minute. He's still training with us and we're certainly not feeling any way down about it."

As with half the Leitrim team, Murray's profession has him currently based in Dublin, so he and some of his team-mates end up training in such obscure places as Mullingar; by the end of the summer there will be few players with more mileage added to the car.

"Yeah, it's a lot of travelling, but with a Connacht medal in your pocket then that would make it all worthwhile.

"And these days, I think every county team is doing the same amount of work in training. So you have to believe in your own ability. The pressure is all on Galway and we've been completely written off. And that doesn't bother us at all."