Despite their massive improvement over the last 18 months . . . especially in the fowards . . . and the craft of Luke Dempsey, they'll struggle to get anywhere near the heights of last season, not to mention the heights of David O'Shaughnessy and Martin Flanagan. Dessie Dolan has been poor all year but there's enough around him to feed off possession provided by that midfield duo.

VerdictWestmeath by four LONGFORD D Sheridan; D Brady, D Masterson, D Reilly; S Mulligan, D Hanniffy, N Farrell; L Keenan, B McElvaney; T Smullen, P Barden, P Berry; B Kavanagh, P Dowd, K Mulligan WESTMEATH G Connaughton; F Boyle, D O'Donoghue, J Keane; D Healy, M Ennis, K Gavin; M Flanagan, D O'Shaughnessy; F Wilson, D Dolan, J Smyth; A Mangan, P Bannon, D Glennon ULSTER SFC PRELIMINARY ROUND CAVAN v DOWN Kingspan Breffni Park, 4.00 Live RTE Two, 3.30 Referee D Fahy (Longford) The same clash that began last year's championship. If today is anyway near as God awful both sides should be penalised for lowering attendances for the rest of the season. But to start the summer on such a negative note just isn't Ulster football. So instead we'll look forward to Ger Pierson, Seanie Johnson and Jason Reilly upping their game in a full forward line of huge potential, something they will have to do. But even more than that we'll look forward to Down putting a Division One campaign . . . however "crap" as Ross Carr put it . . . to some good and to see Benny Coulter, Dan Gordon and Ronan Murtagh guide them through.

Verdict Down by three CAVAN James Reilly; P Brady, E Reilly, M Cahill; M Hannon, A Forde, R Flanagan; D McCabe, L Mulvey; R Cullivan, M McKeever, L Reilly; S Johnston, G Pierson, Jason Reilly DOWN M McVeigh; D McCartan, D Rooney, K McGuigan; R Murtagh, B Grant, J Clarke; D Gordon, J Lynch; J McGovern, A Carr, R Sexton; D Hughes, P Downey, B Coulter.

CONNACHT SFC FIRST ROUND NEW YORK v SLIGO Gaelic Park, 8.30 Referee S Doyle (Wexford) It was Gaelic Park in 1961 when Tom and Mary Breheny first met. We reckon they enjoyed their day at the New York venue a lot more than their sons will today. Tommy, Sligo manager, and Mark, the team's most influential forward, are in for a tough time. The last time the county went Stateside they won by eight points, but that was the season they beat Tyrone. Five years on, they are still reliant on many of the same players and throw in the heat and synthetic pitch on top of that and this will be close. We can't resist. . .

Verdict New York by two NEW YORK C Greene; A Glackin, D Riney, A Foley; M Mitchell, J Mitchell, A Power; K O'Connor, S Russell; S Mullaney, R Moran, V Gavin; R Garvey, K Lilly, M Dobbin