By Cian O'Connell

A decade and a half ago Seamus Quinn was playing when Leitrim survived a significant Connacht Championship scare against New York at Gaelic Park.

Now Quinn is a selector under Brendan Guckian and acknowledges that there is a genuine fear about this Sunday's tricky fixture.

"Leitrim will always have that," Quinn admits. "I played in it myself in 2003 when it went to extra-time. You'd be trying to instill that into the players. 

"Of course, it's not an easy place to go to. Of course, they are looking at Leitrim as one of the weakest counties in Connacht so they'll be saying this is their chance. We are trying to make our players very aware of that."

Quinn recalls the war of attrition in 2003. "It was a very physical game, one of the most physical games I ever played in because they just want to get a win - get a scalp of some Connacht team," Quinn says.

"We went to extra-time and to be honest we were lucky to get it there.  We won by three or four points in extra-time. All I remember is getting a red card at the end of it. It was a second yellow."

The return to fitness of talisman Emlyn Mulligan following another cruciate ligament injury is a significant boost according to Quinn. "A huge addition to have back. He's remarkable that he's back after 10 months out with a cruciate and flying fit.

"You have to admire the man for what he has gone through to have his body back in such shape again and to be going at it again. It's remarkable.

"He's a huge man to have around the dressing-room and he's very good with the younger lads, he has been there seen it all.

"The young lads do look up to him. Plus, Paddy Maguire is another lad that came back in. We hadn't him for the League. And young Mark Plunkett, he was injured last year, back again, they're all a plus."