New Leinster champions Offaly have named an unchanged team to take on Mayo in Sunday's All-Ireland football semi-final at Croke Park. There are two injury concerns still bothering manager Tommy Lyons and his selectors: right corner forward Vinnie Claffey, who scored 1-5 in the Leinster final against Meath, is troubled with a calf strain and midfielder Ronan Mooney was involved in an accident with a lawnmower which required nine stitches in his hand.

According to Lyons, both players will be examined at the weekend and neither will start unless 100 per cent fit. Should Mooney fail to convince the selectors of his fitness, he will be replaced by James Grennan. A decision has not yet been made on Claffey's potential replacement.

One decision that may cause some surprise is the retention of Larry Carroll at full back. The Clara player has had some difficult moments in all of the team's last three matches. Lyons, however, remains loyal.

"The easy thing for a manager would be to drop Larry Carroll," he said after training in Gracefield last night. "The hard decision is to pick him. We're not in this for ourselves but for the collective good and we felt it was the best thing for the team to pick Larry Carroll.

"He has played two or three very good games for us. He got a bit ratchety but he admits it himself and we've addressed the issue. He understands what happened. We don't see it as a problem at all."

After the superb football that accompanied the Leinster final victory, Lyons agrees that his game-plan worked better than ever but is also conscious that Offaly had an element of surprise on their side and that Meath were missing four of last year's All-Ireland winning side.

"In the end of the day, we were delighted by the Leinster final but we know it was a weakened Meath team. We're not silly enough that we didn't know. Opportunity was there and Offaly took it. The same opportunity was there for Kildare and they didn't. Kildare played the same team we played for the last 20 minutes. We went out there and did the business and that's all that matters.

"Meath were Meath and we always knew we were going to struggle with them. But it was a great game of football and we're going up to Croke Park the next day to play the same kind of football. May the best team win."

This almost Corinthian sentiment seems out of place in the high-pressure world of the All-Ireland. It does, however, tally with Lyons's strong belief in the value to a team of strict discipline.

"People say it's naive but I believe in the tradition. It's the way we played at Kilmacud when I was in charge there for four years and we never had a player sent off and we never got involved in fisticuffs and we won't get involved in this team as long as I'm in charge."

He explains that the team's lowly origins in Division Four of the National League is not as relevant as many observers might have thought leading up to the Leinster final.

"We've played six championship football matches (none, as it happens, against fourth-division opponents) now and I don't care what League you're in, six championship football matches will bring on a team. We've progressed in every game and we hope to progress again. We think there's better football in us this Sunday than there was in the Leinster final and we're hoping to produce it."

For the enthusiastic crowds gathered at the Gracefield club, just outside Portarlington, there are the usual considerations of autographs and tickets. Although Croke Park confirmed yesterday that the match would not be all-ticket and that the terraces will remain open to cash offers, county PRO Pat Teehan says business is brisk.

"Demand in Offaly for stand tickets has been unprecedented," he says. "The clubs got their allocation at the weekend and last night (Monday) they went on general sale at O'Connor Park (Tullamore). There were queues for two and a half hours, four deep out on to the road outside the GAA grounds."

Given that they had waited seven weeks between the provincial semi-final and final, the relatively short break since the Leinster final has created its own problems for the team, according to Tommy Lyons.

"We've had a difficult process since the Leinster final because there's been only two weeks and we're working awful hard at it. I think the lads are back down now and we have to bring them up again to get focused for the game.

"They're starting to get the smell of an All-Ireland final. It's a lovely feeling to be playing in an All-Ireland semi-final. Now it's winner-takes-all, winner gets into September 28th in Croke Park. Nobody can get any further. There's only three teams left in the All-Ireland and we're one of them. Mayo are another and Kerry are waiting. We're going to go for it."