He's settled on Gary McQuaid at full-back, although whether it will be him or corner-back Colm Flanagan (right) who will be charged with picking Coulter up won't be clear until throw-in.

Whichever it is, a repeat of their last outing when Meath went 2-0 to 0-0 up within the first three minutes of the Division Two semifinal surely can't be on the cards.

That Donal Morgan, the Scotstown corner-back whose evening lasted only 20 minutes on that occasion, keeps his place to make his championship debut suggests a hefty amount of confidence on McEnaney's part.

Monaghan are just about the bookies' underdogs here but that probably has more to do with a lack of national profile than any great difference in the sides' strengths. They haven't beaten Down in Ulster since 1988, although they came close in 2003 when only some woeful shooting held them back. This is McEnaney's third year in charge and for all the strides they've made under him, he still hasn't won an Ulster Championship match. He hasn't had a better chance than this, though.

That said, Monaghan won't be bringing much to the table that will surprise Ross Carr and DJ Kane, both of whom came to the Down job from Monaghan clubs.

Kane was over the Magheracloone side that made the county final last October and so the talents of Tommy and Damien Freeman - the visitors' best forward and their captain - will have been well parsed in the build-up. Likewise, if corner-forward Ciaran Hanratty is at all susceptible to an early poke in the ribs or tug of the shirt on his first championship start, it won't have escaped Carr, under whom he played well enough for Castleblaney last year to be elevated to county level.

Carr has had to make to changes, corner-back Dan McCartan and midfielder Paul Murphy missing out due to bruised ribs and a fractured hand respectively. Dan Gordon's inclusion was also a touch-and-go affair as his own hand injury has stopped him taking part in fullcontact training since the second Cavan game. All of which reduces piece by piece the home side's margin of error today, albeit that their bench has been especially useful so far.

There's unlikely to be more than a kick in it. It's past time that kick was Monaghan's.

Verdict Monaghan by three DOWN M McVeigh; J Clarke, D Rooney, K McGuigan; R Murtagh, B Grant, M Cole; D Gordan, J Lynch; J McGovern, A Carr, R Sexton; D Hughes, P Downey, B Coulter MONAGHAN S Duffy; C Flanagan, G McQuaid, D Morgan; D Mone, V Corey, JP Mone; E Lennon, P Finlay; D Clerkin, S Gollogly, D Freeman; C Hanratty, S Smith, T Freeman Malachy Clerkin