Leitrim limped past London last month while Galway whopped Mayo who were . . . stop sniggering at the back . . . the third favourites for the All Ireland at the time. The prospects for this afternoon are a little more subtle than all that but not an awful lot. This is a Leitrim team that has been more or less solid and unchanging for the best part of three years and with a fair wind they could run Galway close. But let's face it . . . a hiding isn't out of the question.

That's more a tip of the hat to Galway's improvement than a tug at Leitrim's ponytail, by the way.

Even allowing for Mayo's evercharming capriciousness when they met in Pearse Stadium last month, the way Galway saw out the win against a serious secondhalf wind bodes no way but well for the rest of Peter Ford's (right) summer. As Dessie Dolan pointed out during the week, they're taking the field today without either of the Clancys or Sean Armstrong in their forward line. What Leitrim would do, etc.

Leitrim's misfortune is to have caught this side of the draw because no one walking out of Dr Hyde Park last Sunday . . .regardless of what jersey they were wearing . . . could have said, hand on heart, they'd have taken Connacht's poorest relation.

Most people expected them to be playing to stay out of the Tommy Murphy Cup but they knuckled down in the league and kept their head above water. A defeat today therefore will send them to the qualifiers where, despite a couple of heart-breakingly close shaves, they've yet to win a game. This is the year to change that.

Galway will get a test here but if they're to go anyway towards cashing the cheque we all watched them write out against Mayo, it's one they can't waste any time about passing. Should be over soon after half-time.

Verdict Galway GALWAY P Doherty; K Fitzgerald, F Hanley, D Burke; D Meehan, D Blake, M Comer; J Bergin, N Coleman; J Fallon, M Meehan, N Joyce; D Savage, P Joyce, C Bane LEITRIM N Gill; D Reynolds, M McGuinness, B McWeeney; B Prior, J McKeon, S Foley; G McCloskey, M Duignan; C Regan, M Foley, D Maxwell; D Brennan, J Glancy , D Duignan