Conor Mortimer reckons Mayo's players must "raise their game" to the level of Aidan O'Shea if they are to reach the business end of this summer's football championship.

Stephen Rochford's men take on Cork for a place in the quarter-finals on Saturday evening and while Mortimer is predicting a win for his native county against the Rebels, the Shrule-Glencorrib man feels further improvement will be required from last year's beaten All-Ireland finalists.

"If a number of Mayo's other big names can raise their game to Aidan's level then we'll really have a chance against the top teams. Right now, he's setting the standard and it's up to the rest of them to match it," Mortimer wrote in his column for paddypower.com.

"If they can get over Cork this weekend they're back to where they want to be - the quarter finals. The Leesiders had a poor National League campaign and only managed to scrape by Waterford and Tipperary before being on the wrong end of a heavy defeat to Kerry in the Munster final. There's a sense that all isn't rosey in the garden, everything points to a Mayo win.

He continued: "That said, they do have good footballers and if we let them get a hold of the game early on they could give us some trouble.

"Mayo have yet to put in a solid performance, but I'm hoping they lay down a marker this weekend. If we can put together a solid 70-minute effort it will give them something to build on before having a right cut at the business end of the Championship.

"Considering everything, I can only see one result and that's a Mayo win by 4 or 5 points."

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