Ulster SFC: The provincial final may be going back to Croke Park this year, but it will be a busy weekend in the home of Ulster football in Clones. This evening Armagh and Donegal meet again to settle who will face Derry in next week's semi-final, and tomorrow Tyrone take on Cavan for a place in next month's final.
Armagh were relieved to get out of Clones last Sunday still in the Ulster race and, judging from his team selection, Joe Kernan obviously feels it was just a bad day at the office.
For those who watched it, however, the nature of Armagh's struggle looked more serious. They slowly surrendered the initiative, and Donegal's confidence grew accordingly. For all their extra pace in defence, the champions were repeatedly unable to shut down their free-running opponents.
Donegal's defence is strengthened by the return of Niall McCreadie, but the suspension of Kevin Cassidy is a loss for the team even if he wasn't that comfortable at centrefield.
Neil Gallagher's display in the second half was very encouraging for Brian McEniff, all the more so because Kernan has chosen not to select Philip Loughran, who made a big impact when introduced the last day.
Even a man short, Donegal had their chances to put this away the first day and the feeling here is that, rather than blow out as an ultimately jaded team, Armagh have the capacity to bounce back and give an improved performance. That's their form.
Donegal, on the other hand, have struggled to put top-class championship results back-to-back. The implication of this might be unfair on McEniff's inventive management, but the favourites get the vote here.
Tomorrow Tyrone play Cavan. There are valid question marks over Mickey Harte's team, who looked ordinary for a long time against Down in the last round and seemed to need the injection of morale Peter Canavan's introduction administered.
But Down have been operating at a higher level than Cavan, whose two-match defeat of Antrim was eventually accomplished without suggesting they were going to be able for a step-up in class like this.
Harte's side are strengthening and should be in better shape for the Ulster final, but this should be a straightforward hurdle. Chris Lawn will have his hands full with Dermot McCabe on the edge of the square, Conor Gormley's deputising for Colin Holmes is necessarily experimental and the absence of Brian Dooher dents the team's ball-winning ability.
But overall Tyrone are capable of playing at a more insistent tempo than Cavan and even the two first-round matches won't have bridged that gap.
ARMAGH: P Hearty; A Mallon, F Bellew, P McCormack; A Kernan, K McGeeney, C McKeever; J Toal, P McGrane; M O'Rourke, J McEntee, O McConville; S McDonnell, R Clarke, B Mallon.
DONEGAL: M Boyle; E McGee, R Sweeney, K Lacy; N McCreadie, S Carr, D Diver; B Monaghan, N Gallagher; C Toye, M Hegarty, B Roper; C McFadden, A Sweeney, B Devenney.
Referee: M Deegan (Laois)
TYRONE: P McConnell; R McMenamin, C Lawn, S Sweeney; D Harte, G Devlin, P Jordan; C Gormley, S Cavanagh; B Donnelly, P Canavan, M Penrose; O Mulligan, S O'Neill, E McGinley.
CAVAN: James Reilly; M Hannon, D Rabbitt, K Fannin; P Brady, Peter Reilly, Pauric Reilly; P McKenna, N Walsh; M Cahill, M McKeever, F O'Reilly; Jason Reilly, D McCabe, L Reilly.
Referee: G Ó Conámha (Galway).
