All-Ireland SFC quarter-final: Donegal can't forget Mayo mauling

Rory Gallagher and Jim McGuinness saw their Donegal team hammered 4-17 to 1-10 by Mayo in 2013

Donegal manager Rory Gallagher says his players remember more about the 2013 humiliation by Mayo than the All-Ireland final victory over the Connacht champions a year earlier.

Saturday's All-Ireland quarter-final will be third instalment in a rivalry between two squads which Gallagher says is "intense but healthy".

"We had a very low day in 2013. They hammered us," Gallagher told the BBC.

"In a strange way, we remember that game more than the All-Ireland win."

Unlike Donegal's group of players, the Mayo squad have yet to experienced All-Ireland glory as they were edged out by a point by Dublin in the 2013 decider and then suffered another heartbreaking defeat, after a replay, in last year's semi-final against eventual champions Kerry.

Gallagher is hoping his team can inflict more misery on the Mayo men but insists that he is an admirer of Connacht champions despite any pre-match verbal blasts that he may have directed against them in the past.

"If I was Mayo, I wouldn't change too much about them. They have been one of the top teams in the country for the last few years and in many ways, Kerry were fortunate to beat them after a replay last year.

"Mayo had that (first) game against Kerry all wrapped up last year. They play a great brand of football which is very attacking but at the same time, have quality defenders."

Mayo look likely to go into Saturday's contest as marginal favourites but Gallagher believes the bookies will have no effect on the Croke Park contest.

"It honestly doesn't matter to us whether we are perceived as favourites or underdogs.

"We have a lot of belief and confidence in our own players - regardless of the opposition."

Gallagher has expressed optimism that defenders Eamon McGee and Karl Lacey will both be fit for Saturday's game.

McGee picked up an ankle injury during last weekend's qualifier victory over Galway when Anthony Thompson was brought on as his replacement.

The Four Masters clubman Lacey sustained ligament damage in the Ulster SFC final defeat by Monaghan last month.

Mayo have named an unchanged line-up for Saturday's match, sticking with the side which trounced Sligo in last month's Connacht final.

Mayo: D Clarke; G Cafferkey, D Vaughan, K Higgins; L Keegan, T Cunniffe, C Boyle; S O'Shea, T Parsons; D O'Connor, A O'Shea, K McLoughlin; A Moran, C O'Connor, J Doherty.