Mayo ready to scale Mourne mountain

EUGENE IVERS suspected from day one that he had a special group of players on his hands this year but, after one Thursday night in mid-July, he was sure of it.

Four days earlier, on the Sunday, the Mayo minor team he had taken over only that January had somehow conspired to lose the Connacht final against Galway.

Having entered the game as firm favourites, they kicked a succession of bad wides on the way to a heartbreaking one-point defeat, where injuries to four players also played a part.