Eamonn Coleman stood in the shady corridors of Breffni Park, his eyes twinkling, and declared his pleasure in slow sing-song sentences. He paused intermittently as though to measure the impact of each pronouncement.

The Derry joint-manager was, after all, elaborating on his enduring passion and it seemed that the previous hour, during which his team stripped Cavan raw with dashing, urgent football, had given him the first real satisfaction since the he resumed office.

"I don't know if that's the case," he said earlier this week. "I was just glad we won, I was happy. To get a win in the first round is always a difficult thing, I feel. Yes, we kicked some good football and people can read into that what they will. It happens every week in Gaelic football. For instance, on Sunday, Tyrone played fine stuff against Fermanagh and now they are favourites for the Ulster title."

Before running through the tunnel, Derry had warmed up on a stretch of green behind the stand, punting ball to one another in the sunshine, utterly unnoticed behind the lines of parked cars.

There was an old familiarity about them even in just glimpsing their silhouettes - Anthony Tohill was easily identifiable, so too the tidy figure of Henry Downey, and the busy stride of Coleman himself is never difficult to isolate.

Although all three men are still associated with the days when Derry seemed indomitable, as a group the squad seemed more vulnerable before the Cavan replay. If a general perception exists that the Northern game has declined from the years when teams seemed to be queueing up to win All-Irelands, Derry's graph is seen as symbolic of that decline.

Although they won the Ulster championship last year, commentators decried it as a poor vintage and the county's dead display against Galway did little to defy that argument. Yet Coleman, observing from the stands since he was removed as manager in 1994, disagrees that Ulster is suffering from some sort of plummeting in standards.

"I don't read it like that. You can't expect to win All-Irelands every year but I think there are plenty of teams from Ulster capable of competing for one this year. From my own point of view, I spent three years working with the Derry team that won in 1993. It's a gradual building process."

But there was a verve and tenacity to Derry's dissection of Cavan that served as warning bells around the country and seemed to herald Derry's return as strong contenders. Right now, though, Coleman is steering away from the heady proclamations that bracketed their run in 1993.

"On Sunday we are playing a very, very, good team. I saw Armagh in Ballybofey against Donegal and they impressed me. It was no great surprise to see them come back as they have been building a winning record over the winter.

"As with all Ulster championship games, it's hard to predict what sort of game it will be. But I do think there'll not be a lot to spare on the scoreline."

The one certainty about Armagh is that they are a more dynamic attacking force when Diarmuid Marsden is in the team. But, yet again, his fitness is an issue for the Armagh sectors.

"I think that Armagh are a very effective attacking unit with or without Diarmuid. But, I mean, he is just a marvellous player, as good as there is around at the moment. What he brings to Armagh is an extra width, an array of options. He will be a danger to us certainly, but Armagh are going well because of their strength throughout," says Coleman.

Since returning to the Derry post, Coleman has been in joint management with Adrian McGuckin. In the halcyon days, Derry's aura of invincibility seemed to be directly linked to Coleman's forthright personality. Has he found if difficult to adjust to a partnership structure?

"No problems at all. Adrian is from Ballinderry, just up the road from myself and we have been friends since we were schoolboys. I still remember being in his house as a youngster. And we won an All-Ireland minor title together in 1965 and an under-21 three years later and went on to play senior football together so we know each other extremely well.

"No, that path has been easy and I'm still enjoying it. If you don't, you might as well give it up."