"It's been a long break since we've had our last proper game alright and it doesn't make any sense for us to be out of action for close to three months, " Leitrim captain Dermot Reynolds says. "A lot of the other teams have had two games at this stage and it's tough to keep your focus over the course of 11 weeks.

Fellas' concentration would tend to drift in and out but it's been a bit easier to stay focused over the past week or two."

On the up side, Leitrim's influential forward Declan Maxwell has been deemed fit to play and he lines out at full forward . . . but shaking off the cobwebs is still to the fore of Reynolds' mind."We're going into the unknown in one sense because for the past while the only test has been at training."

The long lay-off is just an added obstacle to what already looks a pretty daunting task. It would come as a major surprise if Leitrim were to trouble Mayo this afternoon but the year has been speckled with close encounters for the so-called big guns. The only yardstick by which their merit can be judged is the now-forgotten league where they came off the blocks in style and almost toppled Donegal away from home before fading away as the competition progressed.

Recent challenge games yielded victories over Longford and Tipperary and defeats to Derry and Dublin.

Leitrim began last season's championship brightly and created an upset when they beat Sligo in the Connacht opener at Carrick-on-Shannon, the venue today.

"Having Mayo in Carrick is a big plus because we can always give teams a good game at home. There's never more than a couple of points in it either way."

Reynolds is part of an allConnacht full-back trio, one of the most respected defensive lines in the country.

Mayo's firepower will provide a stern test, though, and they have a lot to play for. It may still be early days but none of the perceived leading lights of the championship have looked convincing. The Big Three have all spluttered and last weekend Galway showed their schizophrenic side. It's almost a cliche at this stage but Mayo realise this may be as good a chance as any to make that most elusive of breakthroughs.

They're taking no chances either, with Mickey Moran deciding to take training sessions behind closed doors.

Selection-wise, the news is that he has given starting places to Ronan McGarrity at midfield and Billy Joe Padden on the 40.

Despite any talking down of their chances today, Mayo will look on this as a stepping stone to a provincial final and the opportunity to have another rattle at Galway . . .

particularly considering their physical clash in the league semi-final earlier on.

Strangely, for such a small province, it's been nine years since today's two met at provincial level and Mayo ran out winners by seven points on that occasion. Three years before, Leitrim famously overcame their neighbours and they'll stay within contention at Carrick this afternoon. But there will be no repeat of such heroics.

LEITRIM C McCrann; D Reynolds, J McKeon, M McGuinness; D McHugh, B McWeeney, S Foley; G McCloskey, C Carroll; B Prior, M Foley, C Regan; D Duignan, D Maxwell, C Duignan MAYO J Healy; D Geraghty, L O'Malley, P Higgins; D Heaney, J Nallen, P Gardiner; R McGarrity, P Harte; BJ Padden, G Brady, A Dillon; K McDonald, C Mortimer, A Moran CONNACHT SFC SEMI-FINAL LEITRIM vMAYO Carrick-on-Shannon, 3.30 Referee: T Quigley (Dublin)