Connacht SFC semi-final/Interview with Peter Ford: Keith Duggan talks to Sligo manager Peter Ford who is aiming to take a more direct route to Croke Park this year after his side's qualifier success in 2002.

Peter Ford is supervising. You keep the eyes peeled, of course, but the days of the old tricks - scribbled answers on the inside of shirt sleeves, tapping feet for multiple choice, theorems on the back of rulers - went out of fashion with the Tom Brown books.

The Leaving Cert is a solemn, high-pressure business and half the job is making sure the kids are fine, that they are as relaxed as they can be. After that, you look out at all the rows of heads as the swirling quotes and facts spill out onto the page. Futures determined before your eyes amid coughs and the snap of coke tins opening. You watch the kids off-load all this acquired knowledge and you think.

He is in Killala this year, as it happens. There is no escaping Mayo. The county will always be home to him but he admits when he sees the red and green jersey tomorrow, he will feel nothing.

"Maybe in my first year meeting Mayo had an emotional edge to it but not now. There are a lot of Mayo managers out there for a start and given the Connacht championship, there is always a likelihood of us meeting. And, of course, we played each other in the league. It is not a factor."

At the start of the year, he met John Maughan and TJ Kilgallon for a night out with an old friend from their under-21 days who was back from Chicago for a holiday.

"Haven't really seen him since then. We have both been busy doing our own thing."

For Ford, that has meant pouring his energies into Sligo in a way that has brought measured as well as dramatic success. The highlights have been clear; a famous 14-man win over Kildare on Sligo's first visit to Croke Park in 25 years. A memorable comeback against Tyrone in the All-Ireland qualifiers last year followed by a two-game tussle with Armagh. The eventual All-Ireland champions squeezed past Sligo and more than one player said on the eve of September Sunday they had felt blessed about it. That alone was an accolade.

All in all, his stewardship has provided a liberating time for Sligo football fans. The major disappointment of Ford's time was definitely the flatness with which they approached last year's Connacht final against Galway in Castlebar.

On a dismal day, Sligo were timid and apparently going through the motions until the last quarter when they made a rush that was all the more infuriating as it proved what could have been. Afterwards, Ford told it like it was and said the players had let themselves down. The lonely wait of Barnes Murphy goes on.

"Obviously the Connacht championship is still important to us because none of those players have medals and it would be nice to achieve that. It would definitely be good for Sligo football."

Ford admits it is the thought of this time of year that keeps him enthusiastic. A perpetually restless man, he always went through the rigours of training with a degree of impatience, anxious to get real reason for being there. The league served a purpose this year and Sligo's average record is not something that worries him.

"Not really. We were competing in all the games. I think we lost two by a point. It would be different if we had been out of those games but with a turnaround of a couple of scores, we might have won all seven games. So we learned a few things and the players but the effort in and I was happy enough."

Then came the tricky matter of a visit to Ruislip and in front of 3,000 expatriates, the visitors won convincingly without making any huge statement. It was a low-key trip, which is typical of Ford's style. One of his many strengths has been his ability to maintain a balanced attitude through Sligo's many new days.

After the Kildare win in 2000, he was nonchalant and pleased but never got too high and when Dublin trounced Sligo in the subsequent match, he reasoned that the game was always likely to break like that and argued that it would stand to Sligo. So it proved.

And last year, the players responded to his critique of the Connacht final with a storming three weeks. Sligo could - possibly should - have been in the All-Ireland semi-final, ironically against Dublin. But that is all theory and already the landscape has changed. There are a lot of angry roars coming from the qualifying cage. The rewards for victory in this traditional Connacht semi-final showpiece are self-evident.

"I think so. Both Mayo and ourselves had relatively poor league campaigns and it is a massively important game for us. But really, you think of the qualifiers as a lifeline at this point. There is no team in the qualifiers by choice. Teams still want to win every game and that is the way it is going to be here."

The difficulty - common to all counties - is that Sligo essentially must go into this one cold. There is no guarantee that they can simply flick a switch and enjoy the same quality wattage as they did against Tyrone last July.

"You just don't know," admits Ford. "Because obviously you have nothing to measure things against. Those games were over a year ago. Any team prepares as best it can but really, in the early part of a championship season, it is just difficult to tell if things are going to go right for you."

As it is, Sligo have evolved a little since last year. Gone are Kieran Quinn and Dara McGarty, big, industrious wing forwards that Ford used to great effect. On the plus side, Paul Taylor, the county's skilful forward, who has had a nightmare with injuries for the past two seasons, is approaching fitness again, played 15 minutes against London and has been selected for tomorrow.

"Sligo have a small pool of players and obviously we can't afford a massive turnover. Kieran and Dara are unavailable but I certainly feel the lads that have replaced them have developed a lot over the winter and bring a different quality to the team. These things tend to be cyclical."

That is certainly true in Connacht. Mayo versus Sligo is as old as time. Maybe some day next week, halfway through the chemistry paper, Peter Ford will have time to ponder some shared moment on the sideline between himself and Maughan. But during the game, each will be too wrapped up in what is happening on the field to even register the other's presence. There is too much going on.

"You'd hope it will be a good game. The weather will have a bearing. These windy days have a habit of dictating things. We will just have to deal with it."