Eamonn Fitzmaurice hailed the desire shown by his players against Mayo in the Gaelic Grounds.

Speaking shortly after the final whistle in their their narrow semi-final replay win, Fitzmaurice told 'The Saturday Game': "There's a massive desire within the group. A lot of those younger lads don't have an All-Ireland medal at any grade.

"There's massive hunger within the group, there's massive togetherness in the group, there's great spirit there and I think that was visible there today."

The Kingdom boss expects his players to improve as a result of the two tough encounters against the Connacht champions.

"I remember as a player myself back in 2000 we were in an All-Ireland semi-final replay against Armagh and it brought a lot of us who were young at the time on in terms of experience and playing in games of those intensity.

"It's fantastic for the group, getting those types of test mentally and physically and all the rest.

"You can't buy that in terms of training. We're delighted to have got the two games, the extra-time and obviously to have come out on the right side of it."

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