Underdog tag sits well with Ford

Sligo have one small advantage over the other contestants in this weekend's All-Ireland football quarter-finals, says manager Peter Ford. While the others still hold on to overall title ambitions, Sligo's main achievement has been getting this far.

So the pressure is off - they start Sunday's opening quarter-final against Armagh as underdogs, just as they did against Tyrone in their previous game. Armagh illustrated their All-Ireland intentions en route to the Ulster title and are now regarded as a side that can go all the way.

"I honestly think that Armagh and the other teams left in there would be thinking about winning the All-Ireland," says Ford. "I think we'd be different to them in that we can only take it each game at a time, and I certainly don't think anyone in Sligo is talking about winning an All-Ireland this year.

"And you do have eight great teams left in there. But I think any four of them could go through from here. I mean beating Tyrone was a great achievement for us. And if we beat Armagh it will be another great achievement. But we're certainly not looking beyond that at the moment."

Nor was Ford sitting at home on Sunday night hoping for a soft draw. It was known that they couldn't meet Galway again, but after that he reckoned it was always a case of take your pick.

"We knew there wouldn't be an easy match. We certainly weren't thinking about playing Dublin or Cork or anyone. We just had to wait and see what would show up.

"And now we have to deal with it. We know it's going to be a difficult game. Armagh had two really hard games with Tyrone before they beat them. And they've been looking very good this year."

The novelty of this pairing - two teams that have never met before in the championship and neither have won an All-Ireland - won't, says Ford, have any great bearing on the game. Even the fact that Sligo got a good lesson in Ulster football from Tyrone will not be relevant on the day.

"It means nothing that Sligo haven't played Armagh in the championship before. We've seen enough of them over the last few years. And it's no advantage either that we played Tyrone last time out.

"Armagh and Tyrone are two totally different teams. We just have to play to our strengths, but we know they are a very physical side. They like to bunch a lot of their players in defence and they play a lot of those long, diagonal balls as well."

There is no denying, however, that Sligo gained considerably in both team morale and overall confidence with the win over Tyrone. The panel remains almost at full strength, with former captain Paul Taylor still the principal casualty of the summer.

Taylor's lower back problem has been stubbornly slow to heal, and yesterday he played down any idea of a dramatic return to form for Sunday's game. Yet the success of the team has helped to keep him in a positive frame of mind. "It's great to see the team playing so well. It's going to be a very tough game against Armagh, but I think they can pull it off. Everyone was on a high after the win over Tyrone, but I think they've come back done to earth now. But if it was Tyrone that was playing Armagh I think they would fancy their chances. And we'll be thinking that way too."

Ford, meanwhile, will finalise his team after training tomorrow night. Paul Durkan is still not fully fit but should be fine to start at midfield, while full back Patrick Naughton suffered a minor knock in the under-21 game last week and has sat out training since.

Defender Neil Carew has also been sidelined from training the last couple of days, but with the promise of another great day at Croke Park, no one wants to be left in the treatment room.