Cusack Park will stage the two SFC semi-finals on Sunday with Mullingar Shamrocks facing The Downs at 2pm and holders Garrycastle taking on Killucan at 3.30pm.

Apart from being a local derby clash, the meeting of Shamrocks and The Downs is notable for the fact that Ray Smyth, who led The Downs to Flanagan Cup wins in 2003 and '05, is now in charge of Shamrocks. Adding to the intrigue is the fact that his sons Lorcan and Aonghus will be lining out against their brother John, who plays for The Downs.

Fresh from their quarter-final win over town rivals Athlone, Garrycastle face surprise packets Killucan who topped Division 1 following successive wins over Coralstown/Kinnegad, St. Loman's, Maryland and Athlone.

Garrycastle manager Anthony Cunningham, who is also boss of the Galway under 21 team which will take on Tipperary in the All-Ireland final on Saturday evening, is refusing to underestimate Paul Greville and co.

"Killucan are on a major role and they're definitely in the semi-finals on merit," he said.

"They have been very impressive this year and we'll have to show a big improvement from the way we played the last day. Killucan are going very well and we'll need all our experience to beat them on Sunday."

Meanwhile, the first of the IFC semi-finals takes place on Saturday evening in Cusack Park when last year's junior champions Caulry will hope to upset Bunbrosna. The second semi-final will also take place at Cusack Park on Saturday week when Ballynacargy, who edged out Rosemount by a point in last weekend's quarter-final, will come face to face with Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall. Tweet

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