This match is an echo of a league fixture from earlier in the year. Won by Fermanagh, it wouldn't be of terrific significance this afternoon but for Mayo's recent failures to even match League form let alone surpass it.

Changes are forced on manager John Maughan after the Connacht final defeat. Wing back Fergal Costello is injured and misses out while centrefielder Fergal Kelly is suspended. Against Galway the same old failings haunted Mayo, principally the inability to make possession count .

Fermanagh have great momentum after the defeat of Meath. Theirs has been a steady improvement marked by the capacity to get up after being flattened. The failure to put away Down in the Ulster semi-final suggested they were soft mentally, but the hard-fought win over Cavan and the comeback against Meath appeared to answer that question.

Mayo will feel confident but their forwards can't be relied on to score more than Fermanagh's and absences around the middle won't help. But Fermanagh have their own difficulties with Stephen Maguire injured, and their form is more subject to fluctuation. On the basis of greater reliability, Mayo deserve a narrow vote of confidence. ... Seán Moran

Was last week's glass half full or half empty for Tyrone? On the one hand the comeback from nine points down in the second half was phenomenal and a great demonstration of nerve. But on the other the failure to take the available chances at the end was a worrying recurrence of the jitters that have come against the county in the past couple of years.

The stronger instinct would have to be that it is Down rather than Tyrone who will have more reason to regret not winning last weekend's exciting drawn encounter - the first such final since Donegal and Tyrone in 1989.

For a start Down were given a good hand if not quite all the cards. Their goal barrage either side of half-time stunned Tyrone and must have pushed the favourites close to the brink. Even the sending-off of Gregory McCartan wasn't the seminal loss that it might have been. By the time of the red card, McCartan appeared to be having trouble with the mobility of the Tyrone pair Sean Kavanagh and Cormac McAnallen.

The response was impressive, with Tyrone underlining their greater scoring threat with a succession of scores that brought them back into the game.

Mickey Harte's response to the defensive disasters that more than anything endangered his side's provincial prospects was to replace the goalkeeper, although to be fair to John Devine this was for injury-related reasons and he wasn't directly implicated in any of the goals with the exception of maybe the fourth.

Of far more significance was the lack of a presence at full back and big Dan Gordon, Down's young full forward, caused havoc under the high ball.

That difficulty is still unresolved with both Colin Holmes and Chris Lawn battling injury. Attention to defensive duties in general was a problem for Tyrone with Benny Coulter's goal another monument to inept marking and the manner in which they were opened up for the second goal not much better. If Harte's side register any sort of improvement in this regard it's hard to see where Down can raise their game going forward to ensure a similarly good total.

Undoubtedly Paddy O'Rourke's team will have gained confidence from taking such fancied opponents to the brink but can they improve as much as Tyrone are likely to? The smart money says no. ... Seán Moran

What an awful week looms for Limerick with the prospect of three senior championship defeats in the space of eight days.

The fact that the draw has cast them in with the All-Ireland champions probably relieves the pressure a little and that will be no harm, as Liam Kearns's side appeared to suffer from the expectations of last week's Munster final. The one aspect of play that most disappointed was the score taking. Limerick have been more forward-built than most emerging teams but the marksmanship in Killarney was poor, even aside from the two missed penalties.

Where they will feel they can bring the game to Armagh will be in the athleticism and mobility of their centrefield and half lines. The champions will of course welcome such challenges to their ability to squeeze the life out of opponents around the middle and block off the breaking at pace that Limerick like to use as a platform for attack.

The win over Dublin was notable for Armagh exhibiting signs of having recaptured All-Ireland form in the second half. This was all the more commendable for the injuries to Oisín McConville (who eventually had to go off) and Kieran McGeeney (still prevented from putting the pedal to the floor by a recurrent hamstring injury). If Limerick can put last week behind them and suspend inhibitions they can make life awkward for the champions, who lack burning pace. But everything else is going Armagh's way.

Armagh are beginning to believe in their potential to retain the All-Ireland whereas Limerick must cope with the twin depressions of the footballers' below-par display and the end of the hurlers' (plus dual players') year. The trend is running strongly in the champions' favour.

Seán Moran