Crunch time for Sligo. If the advances of recent years aren't to stagnate, a championship breakthrough is needed. So it's a bad time to run into an injury crisis as bad as Mickey Moran's panel is experiencing. Of the evenly spread absentees - Nigel Clancy (defence), Con O'Meara (centrefield) and Tommy Brennan (attack) - Clancy is a particularly severe loss. Although Noel McGuire, who played there during the league, is a promising full back and looked as much in UCD's Sigerson Cup run, the loss of Clancy robs the team of an influential player. Eamonn O'Hara starts at centrefield but might be more effective further up the field. Mayo give runs to two newcomers: Trevor Mortimer is expected to make an impact in the forwards; Rory Hannick at centrefield is more on trial. Mortimer is particularly important because Mayo desperately need new forward talent. Continued reliance on James Horan, Kieran McDonald and Kevin O'Neill won't augur that well for Pat Holmes's chances of eliciting improved levels of achievement from the team. Ultimately though, Sligo have tended to disappoint when the big day comes whereas Mayo of late have never lost to teams they weren't supposed to lose to. That trend should survive tomorrow.