By Francis Mooney

IT'S been a crazy summer for Tyrone. Having failed to get past the first round in Ulster, they stumbled through the Qualifiers.

And suddenly, the Red Hands are hot favourites to reach the All-Ireland final. The upturn in fortunes has caught even their most fervent supporters by surprise.

Now the players must adjust to their new status as the hotly fancied side going into Sunday's semi-final against Wexford.

But that won't be a problem, according to centre back Conor Gormley, whose two All-Ireland winning campaigns have taught him how to cope with expectation.

"This group of players are used to being favourites down through the years. We're well used to it, so I don't think it will bring extra pressure.

"We have 70 minutes of football to play and we'll just have to get stuck in and get on with it," he said.

The All-Ireland semi-finals of 2003 and '05 saw the Red Hands pitted against contemporary giants Kerry and Armagh, but Gormley insists that Wexford will be afforded the respect they have earned by reaching the last four.

"The last two semi-finals were against the big guns and Wexford wouldn't be seen as a big team at the minute.

"But you have to give them credit. They're in the All-Ireland semi-final, 70 minutes away from an All-Ireland final, so you can't take anybody for granted at this stage.

"If you just look through the results this year we had Fermanagh getting to the Ulster final and other surprise results, so we just can't write Wexford off. We have to be on our guard."

Tyrone's sluggish start to the championship appeared to justify the general consensus that the retirement of Stephen O'Neill and the loss through injury of Owen Mulligan had inflicted irreparable damage on their attacking capacity.

But a few tactical adjustments and a fresh approach got the Red Hand machine purring again.

"Boys have stepped into their shoes, the likes of Tommy McGuigan, Sean Cavanagh moving to full forward and they have all stepped up to the plate.

"And that's what you want, it's a 15-man team and you just can't rely on any one person to get you through. Everybody has a job to do and we all just have to give the lot.

"We have a lot of players who are very versatile and could nearly play anywhere. But at the end of the day it's all about workrate. We go out and give our all for the jersey, our all for the team, we do what we can.

"There's boys sitting on the bench who would be mad to get on and they're all busting themselves at training, so we all have to take our chance when we get a jersey."

And as Conor Gormley casts his mind back to a downcast dressing room at Pairc Esler where Tyrone had just lost an Ulster Championship first round replay to Down he appreciates that this Tyrone team has come a long way.

"That evening against Down up in Newry, it was a sombre changing room and the All-Ireland semi-final seemed a long, long way away."

Gormley believes manager Mickey Harte has been the single most important factor in the team's renaissance.

Harte refused to believe that his Red Hand side was not good enough to challenge once again for major honours and set about rebuilding confidence among the players.

"You have to give credit to Mickey Harte. He got us back. It wasn't the preferred route we wanted to take but it was there for us and we just had to knuckle down in training and work hard.

"We got the results that mattered and we're here now. A lot of the credit has to go to Mickey. He took the thing by the scruff of the neck, got training going again and everybody got behind the wheel and gave it everything.

"That sort of effort has shown now and that sort of effort again will hopefully get us to the final."

And it all came together on quarter-final day at Croke Park, where Tyrone demolished Dublin's challenge and announced their return to centre stage.

"The last two performances were at the opposite end of the scale. Everything went right against Dublin whereas we were maybe just lucky enough to get past Mayo.

"Maybe the whole atmosphere, the big crowd came together, everything was at stake and maybe everybody just knew it was time to deliver. The thing just clicked for us, and I think the key was that everybody performed against Dublin, everybody gave a hundred and ten per cent."