Compiled by IAN O'RIORDAN

IT Sligo link: Panels contain 21 connections

There probably won’t or can’t be a more neutral observer of Sunday’s All-Ireland football final than IT Sligo – which lays claim to 21 present or former students involved in both the Mayo and Donegal panels.

However the keenest rivalry will probably be between close friends Mark McHugh, the roving Donegal forward, and his IT Sligo Sigerson Cup team-mate Kevin Keane, Mayo’s right-corner back – both of whom are current beneficiaries of sports scholarships at the Institute.

Keane, who celebrated his 22nd birthday the day after Mayo’s impressive win over Dublin, reckons a lot of GAA supporters around the country are delighted to see different counties reaching the final this year. “It will be a novelty for people all over the country. When we were playing on the college team last year it probably never struck Mark and myself that we’d be meeting up on Croke Park at the end of September,” he said.

“When we go on the pitch we will be going into battle. But after the game winner takes all but we will shake hands no matter who wins.”

McHugh agreed: “We may not be friends for the 70 minutes but we will be pals when it is over. We’d be quietly confident, but Mayo are hungry as well and they quite rightly are confident after that performance against Dublin.”

The 12 members of the Mayo panel with IT Sligo connections are current students Kevin Keane, Danny Geraghty, Micheál Forde and Evan Regan; IT Sligo alumni include Colm Boyle, Alan Freeman, Keith Higgins, and captain Andy Moran, who is out with an injury, plus Michael Walsh and Pat Harte who is also injured with a broken ankle. Alan Dillon and the team manager James Horan also studied online courses through the Institute.

While Mark McHugh still attends IT Sligo, other Donegal players who formerly attended IT Sligo include Paul Durcan, brothers Eamonn and Niall McGee, Karl Lacey, Christy Toye and Barry Dunnion while Donegal selector Rory Gallagher is a former student, as is goalkeeping coach Pat Shovlin.

When counties from the same region contest an All-Ireland final there is likely to be some educational institution with a strong representation of alumni. Before the 2003 final former Queen’s coach Dessie Ryan was proud to point out that 13 of the panellists from Armagh and Tyrone had been through the university football club.

Before the same final, St Patrick’s Armagh secondary school was able to boast an even greater number of past pupils, 16 of the panellists, had been through its corridors.

Donegal v Mayo: Recent history

It is a first on Sunday as Donegal and Mayo meet for the first time in the All-Ireland football final – Mayo seeking their first All-Ireland win since 1951, while Donegal last won the title in 1992, making the breakthrough for the first time.

They've also met just once before in the championship, with Donegal winning the 1992 All-Ireland semi-final by 0-13 to 0-9.

However there have been some interesting meetings of late: the counties also met in the 2007 Allianz League Division One decider, when Donegal won the by 0-13 to 0-10.

Donegal also won (0-17 to 1-7) when the counties clashed in an Allianz League group game in Ballyshannon last March. Mayo led by 1-2 to 0-1 after 16 minutes but were out-scored by 0-16 to 0-5 from there on.

Connacht v Ulster finals: Great comeback denied

1948: Cavan 4-5, Mayo 4-4

Sunday is the first All-Ireland football final between the champions of Connacht and Ulster since 1948. Mayo were also involved back then but the Ulster challenge was carried by Cavan, who were defending the title won so memorably in New York's Polo Grounds a year previously.

The final was expected to threaten an attendance record and the fact it didn't appears to have owed more to poor event management than any lack of interest. The crowds descended on Jones's Road as early as 8.30 and by midday, admission to sideline seats was closed.

The gates were shut a full hour and a half before the throw-in even though the attendance of 74,645 was nearly 5,000 short of the then record of 79,245 for the Roscommon-Kerry final of 1944.

Mayo's younger team were favourites but Cavan were more experienced and squeezed home by a point. The match is remembered in Mayo for two features: firstly the extremely strong wind that made Cavan's winning the toss more than usually important and secondly, the lack of injury-time.

Mayo appeared nervous at the start and trailed by 11, 3-2 to nil, at half-time. But they responded in the second half with one of the great comebacks and although Mick Higgins scored another goal for Cavan, Mayo drew level at 4-4 each through Éamonn Mongey's point with five minutes to go.

In the end it was Peter Donohue, who had the last word, converting a free with a minute left. Contemporary accounts suggest as many as three minutes more could have been played.

MacAuley believes it's Donegal's to lose

Dublin's Michael Dara Macauley landed into Croke Park yesterday for the launch of the TG4 documentary Cnoc 16 – and with that was landed the inevitable question: Donegal or Mayo? "Well, I think there's a lot of pressure on this Donegal team," he said. "I don't know if I just hear more because I have Donegal relatives or what not. But I think there's huge weight on their shoulders and people saying they're going to walk this final.

"When you haven't been in a final before it's going to be a big burden to take. But I think if they can manage that then Jim McGuinness will have them well prepared psychologically. If they can get over that it's probably Donegal's to lose. . . . I'd say Mayo are relishing all this talk of Donegal. I would be. You'd be hoping it's going to their heads and that you can exploit it on the day."