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A first Connacht title in seven years ensures 2017 will be fondly remembered in Roscommon, but Sunday’s Croke Park clash against Mayo promises to be interesting.

On Saturday a lot of questions will be answered as Derry come to Elvery's MacHale Park for a do or die qualifier game against Mayo. Again we find ourselves having to take the scenic route in pursuit of glory; again our county seems divided with opinion about the prospects of our team.

Mayo left Salthill with even more questions to answer than when they were turned over by Galway at the same stage of the competition last year. Last years win by the Tribesmen in MacHale Park - was seen as a smash and grab raid by the visitors, one that Mayo would learn from. This result was something else entirely, the decision by Stephen Rochford to drop Colm Boyle from the starting line-up was something that had everyone talking in the build up to throw in.

The mood in Galway city and county among the GAA fraternity this week is one of giddiness and anticipation as people look forward to the Galway and Mayo Connacht championship semi-final clash next Sunday in Pearse Stadium (4pm).

Mayo take on Galway in the Connacht semi final on Sunday in Salthill in what promises to be a mouthwatering clash to see who will face off against either Roscommon or Leitrim in the provincial show piece on July 9.

Over the past six seasons Mayo have faced Galway five times in the Connacht championship, next Sunday's meeting in Pearse Stadium will be the sixth meeting in seven years. The most basic statistic from the previous five meetings is that Mayo have won four of those five meetings with Galway's solitary win coming in last year's meeting in Castlebar. In those five games Mayo have outscored Galway on a cumulative score of 9-69 to 4-53, unsurprisingly in those five games Cillian O'Connor has accounted for 30 of Mayo's 69 points.

Mayo got over their first hurdle of the championship season with a nine point win over Sligo in MacHale Park on Sunday afternoon, but Stephen Rochford will be looking for a big improvement from him his side come their meeting with Galway next month.

Sligo are the only team on the minds of Mayo players and management as they prepare an assault on the 2017 Connacht championship against the Yeats County in MacHale Park on Sunday afternoon. Both Stephen Rochford and his captain Cillian O’Connor were quick to shoot down any notions of Mayo being talked up as Nestor or Sam Maguire cup contenders until those trophies were on the line in a given game. Until then the name of the game is entirely the opposition in front of them.

Mayo's 2017 championship gets under way on Sunday in Elverys MacHale Park against rank outsiders and recent conquerors of New York, Sligo. Niall Carew's men find themselves priced at 15/2 to win the game while, Stephen Rochford's charges are an unbackable 1/14 on. If you are silly enough to bet on a draw, it's available at 18/1. The handicap betting suggests that Mayo should win the game by around nine points. Sligo do have the advantage of having a game under their belts, albeit an energy sapping trip to the Big Apple, which they ended up winning comfortably. They did stay behind in New York for a few days training and returned to Ireland the Thursday after their game in Gaelic Park. It does take a few days to get over the jet lag so it is not ideal preparation for such a big game,

Mayo will meet Sligo on Sunday week in Castlebar after the Yeats men survived their trip to the Big Apple defeating the home side by 1-21 to 1-13. For the life of me I could not get my head around all the talk that New York were going to beat Sligo and that this was their strongest ever team in the championship and an upset was on the cards. This theory was mainly based on the fact that they recruited a few big name players and also ran Roscommon to a single point last year and that Roscommon are perceived as a better team than Sligo.