Ever since the demise of a brief and intense period of Ulster dominance during the early part of the last decade, the province's rival factions have gradually returned towards the introspective world which traditionally defined the northern championship. Armagh's emotional coming-of-age gave last year's provincial competition a colour of sorts, but in true Ulster fashion, they stumbled once they came south. Tyrone were the last side from the province to grace an All-Ireland final (1995) and the general consensus is that the state of the game up north has stumbled since then.

Derry remain a perpetual whisper as solid outside All-Ireland bets, but still have to surmount a confounding record of improbable failure.

What has made the current campaign unique has been the performances of Fermanagh and Antrim, for an age the afterthoughts of the summer scene.

While Antrim's arrival has been dramatic (and they should have added to Derry's list of bad days last Sunday), Fermanagh's arrival is of a more slow-burning nature. While their win against Donegal was a shock in historical terms, the truth was much less dramatic.

"When you look at the two teams on the day, we were arguably slight favourites," admits midfielder Paul Brewster. "I mean, it was a brilliant win for us against one of the bigger championship teams, but we had a feeling that we had the winning of it. Thing was, we went to Ballybofey as a Division One team and performed as such. That old failure of just going absent for those 10 or 15 fatal minutes didn't happen. So in a way, it was not that much of a surprise. In terms of actually cracking it, of defeating one of the big teams, it was a massive day."

In the bad old days, Brewster's name was often mentioned with a touch of sympathy. As an athletic midfielder, he toiled with the county on painful days but always maintained a model approach to his own game. People thought of him as a natural who had everything but the right birthplace. Brewster loves playing for the county, though, and wouldn't change any of it.

If tomorrow's Ulster semi-final against Armagh represents a new high for the Enniskillen man, then the ordeal against Tyrone in 1996 (Fermanagh lost 0-9 to 1-18) was the lowest point. In the aftermath, it was suggested that the county might be better advised to opt out of the championship.

"And that was absolutely right. That year was just diabolical," he recalls. "I'd say there were plenty of club teams in Fermanagh better organised than the county then. There were six or seven players putting in the same effort, but as a squad we were nowhere. But the point is that Pat King took more or less the same group, won a B All-Ireland with them, and then pushed Cavan to a replay the year they won Ulster."

Since that day in '98, when Cavan needed late scores to secure a replay, Fermanagh's progress has been steady if not spectacular. They sent out striking warning signals in the league that they were ready to conduct some hard-hitting summer business. Promoted to the top flight, they charted out some impressive results and were in contention for a semi-final spot travelling to Derry for their final match. As it turned out, they were annihilated.

"We just weren't right. We had slipped up against Armagh before that and many of us felt our chances of the play-offs had gone. So we went up there out of sorts and there were boys chisellin' each other and rowing a bit, so we didn't perform. Terrible. I don't think it dented us in the long run, it was just an appalling performance."

They recovered for a somewhat historic return to Brewster Park in Enniskillen, hosting Monaghan in the first championship tie there in over a decade. They entered the game in the novel position of favourites and justified it. They were equally forthright in their approach to Donegal; for all the fairytale headlines, they crossed the border to do a job and accomplished it.

Now, against the Ulster champions, they will take the field with some momentum. None of the old failures are relevant; Fermanagh are legitimate contenders.

"Well, I'm not heading to Clones for the sunshine," says Brewster. "I can't wait, the place will be packed to the gills and there'll be a huge Fermanagh support. I would have hated to end my career without ever getting a crack at the big boys.

"I couldn't care what they think of us, it doesn't matter. We want to put the Ulster champions out. We all know how precarious the system is - in next year's draw, we could find ourselves away to Derry in the first round. The system is always stacked against you. So having got this far, we feel we can do it."