Ulster make only one change for next Sunday's Railway Cup final against holders Leinster in Clones. Donegal's Jimmy McGuinness, who had an outstanding match after being introduced as a second-half substitute, is, as expected, named in the starting line-up. Cavan's Peter Reilly loses out.
McGuinness, whose commitment in commuting from Kerry where he is a student at Tralee RTC impressed Ulster's management of Brian McEniff and Art McRory, will play at right half forward. This necessitates a shuffle, with Cavan's Dermot McCabe moving to the right corner at the expense of county colleague Reilly.
The defence, which looked a little unsteady under late pressure, is nevertheless left alone; a positional switch between JJ Doherty and Chris Lawn on the full-back line is the only alteration.
In the attack, captain Peter Canavan from Tyrone swaps positions with Donegal's Tony Boyle, who scored 0-12 in the replay and will now play in the left corner.
This means there are no places for Mickey Linden and Gary Coleman, who were unavailable for last weekend's replay after playing in the drawn match. Linden was involved in Down's league fixture in Ennis, whereas Coleman was injured.
According to Ulster goalkeeper Finbar McConnell, Sunday's replay at Clones rekindled memories of the days when the interprovincial series was second only in importance to the All-Ireland Championship.
"The first half was poor on Sunday and will have given the Railway Cup knockers some ammunition, but as the game progressed and went into extra time it was tremendous," said McConnell, who produced three stunning saves in extra-time to inspire Ulster to victory.
"On other days they might have gone in, I suppose it's a toss of a coin. Some you win, some you lose. But it's something I have been doing a lot of work on, and in a one-to-one situation there's no reason why the goalkeeper can't come out on top.
"The onus is on the forward, the pressure is on him and the keeper has nothing to lose."
And he paid tribute to Ulster's opponents whose performances over the two drawn games and a double dose of extra-time underlined the significant progress being made in the Connacht counties.
"The two games against Connacht have been tough. Mayo in the past couple of seasons have brought a new dimension to football in the west and Connacht has really risen out of the ashes. It's a credit to them and they will go home very disappointed at not getting a result. Over the course of the two games they will feel that they should have got something from it."
