TYRONE have made two changes for Sunday's Ulster championship match against Armagh in Omagh. Out from the side which won the replay with Down go Ciaran Loughran and Fergal Logan, whose ankle ligaments have failed to recover from the injury incurred in that match.

Mattie McGleenan comes in for Loughran with Ciaran McBride moving to the left wing of the attack. McGleenan came on as a substitute in the replay and capped a good performance with a 64th-minute goal.

He is selected in his usual position of right corner forward.

Logan is replaced at centre-field by Ger Cavlan, whose recall is slightly surprising given the recurrent leg injury he has been carrying so far this championship. But team sources say that he has made a speedier than expected recovery and will take his place.

Among the notable absentees are Brian Dooher, whose frustration at missing a considerable amount of football with a long-term injury has been deepened by falling foul to a dead leg, which means he must remain on the bench although his original injury has cleared.

Pascal Canavan is also missing. Suspended for the preliminary round against Down, he has since broken a bone in his hand and is missing for a third successive championship match.

Armagh introduce three championship debutants for the match. Right corner back Enda McNulty, right wing back Andrew McCann and left corner forward Oisin McConville - man-of-the-match in Crossmaglen Rangers' All-Ireland club victory over Knockmore last March.

Two positions are left vacant. Either veteran Martin McQuillan or John Rafferty will fill the left wing back position and at full forward, Neil Smyth will line out pending a fitness test.

Brian McAlinden, joint manager with Brian Canavan, is up-beat without being unrealistic about Sunday's match.

"We've prepared well. I would say there's more pressure on Tyrone to perform, they're going for the three-in-a-row and have home advantage. We're not expected to win, expected to do well, maybe come close, but not win. There have been a few surprises in Ulster so far with the drawn matches but the stronger team has come through."

Of his current panel, he identifies goalkeeper Benny Tierney as a central influence on the team. Tierney, 28, is McAlinden's successor in goal and since his co-manager retired after the 1990 Ulster final, has been a permanent fixture in the county goal since.

Others in good form include Kieran McGeeney, more familiar as a centre back but recently playing well as Jarlath Burns's partner at centre-field. McGeeney was most recently in the spotlight during the controversy surrounding unauthorised players in the US.

Ger Houlahan, who was an All Star in 1993 and a prominent performer a year later as the county reached the NFL final but flopped in the championship, is, according to McAlinden "playing as well as he has in a long time". In the intervening years, Houlahan had suffered from a viral complaint which greatly affected his performances.

That the county failed to build a breakthrough on the foundation of that League run has been a disappointment exacerbated by the availability of a team that should in the eyes of most neutrals have won the 1992 Minor All-Ireland. Meath who also beat Armagh in the `94 NFL final, took the minor title with a last-minute goal.

Diarmuid Marsden was probably the most feted of those minors but his career since has been becalmed as the county has struggled to make an impact at senior level. He appears to have been around for a long time waiting to realise his under-age potential. "Chances are running thin at this stage," is McAlinden's rather severe summation of the 22-year-old's situation.

One surprise about recent selections has been the small number of Crossmaglen Rangers players on the team. John McEntee is injured and the others, apart from Oisin McConville, have struggled to make the first team. The very achievement of winning the All-Ireland imposed limitations on the players in an inter-county context.

"It really has been a problem for the Crossmaglen contingent," according to McAlinden. "They missed much of the League campaign and when players get places on a team, they can be hard to shift.

The three or four Crossmaglen contingent would also have missed out being part of the team while they were preparing with the club."

For the other Ulster championship fixture, the Fermanagh-Cavan replay, both counties have delayed announcing their line-up until this evening because of injuries.