There was a sense of deja vu last week at Markievicz Park. For the second year running, Sligo needed to beat Clare to make sure of a place in the Allianz National Football League semi-finals. For a second year, they lost. Some things however, were different. This time Sligo qualified for their first League semi-final since 1974. The county also has a new manager.

Peter Forde is unconcerned by his team's apparent blinking at the precipice, and has been around long enough to understand that all is not always what it seems in the league: "This was a bit different," he says. "We were unlikely to lose out this year. It was obvious Derry didn't want to qualify this time. We had a safety valve and that may have affected our display."

Forde is one of three managers from Mayo in this weekend's semi-finals - showcasing again the county's great store of such talent. Not yet 40, he brings impressive credentials to the job. A member of Mayo's minor All-Ireland winning panel in 1978 while still an under-16, he added an under-21 medal in 1983. He added a Sigerson medal at UCG where he held a boxing scholarship.

Full back on the team which reached Mayo's first All-Ireland final in 38 years - under the management of this evening's adversary John O'Mahony - Forde came to prominence in unfortunate circumstances when he captained the county team in 1992 and fronted the rebellion that ousted manager Brian McDonald.

After defeat by Donegal brought down the curtain on a turbulent year Forde never played again for his county.

As a coach he had already had success with Summerhill College in Sligo. More recently he coached his home club Ballinrobe to last year's intermediate and under-21 county titles.

Forde was also a selector with the Mayo teams that came so close to winning senior All-Irelands in 1996 and '97. The experience of being a selector doesn't seem to have appealed to him despite the near-success and he left John Maughan's management team after the first two years. An obvious contender to succeed Maughan in 1999, Forde lost out to current manager Pat Holmes.

"I had been interested in the Mayo job," he says, "after being a selector for two years and feeling not that fulfilled with the secondary role. The Mayo position didn't materialise - I wasn't really considered and I read between the lines. Sligo appointed me last summer."

This job was regarded as a bit volatile after the county's championship experience of the previous summer when Galway destroyed Sligo's burgeoning self-confidence under Mickey Moran's careful tutelage, leaving them scoreless at half-time in the Connacht semifinal before winning 0-22 to 0-4.

If Forde, a resident of Sligo for six years, had reservations about the task they didn't inhibit him.

"It was a risk from that point of view but most people accept it (the Galway defeat) was a freak. Neutrals gave them a good chance but the game was gone by halftime. We're glad to be in a semifinal for the first time in 27 years but I'm not viewing the whole thing in terms of Galway. Our core group is much the same but there are around 12 new players on the panel and some changes to the first team."

The league started well for Sligo but results since Christmas haven't been as assured. This can often identify a team which has been putting more effort than anyone else into the first half of the programme. Forde says there are reasons for the tougher going.

"We've been coping with suspensions since Christmas. With two or three fellas out, we were able to give others experience but we weren't at full strength."

Facing into this rematch with their tormentors of last July, Sligo can feel happy enough with progress since. Once more they've been sufficiently competitive and Forde says their displays have shown a touch of iron.

"I've been most pleased with the performances, that we have been able to finish strongly in all matches. We finished on nine points but we could have lost any of them. Even against Mayo, the best team in the division, when they were flying, we survived with 14 men. That builds confidence."

Is that confidence on the line, today? "We're approaching this as a one-off. We'll go out as underdogs with nothing to lose and there's still seven weeks to the championship."