Antrim v Derry, Casement Park, 2.30 (Net 2)

Eamonn Coleman is certainly not willing to leave anything to chance. The Derry manager, undaunted by opponents fresh from a first championship win in two decades, moved quickly to assign favouritism to Antrim on the grounds that they will have home advantage, and followed up by firing a few broadsides at Longford referee John Bannon who took charge of Derry's last two championship defeats. Bannon is, however, unlikely to make it a hat-trick.

The important thing about Antrim's defeat of Down was that it was a thorough victory. They led for virtually the entire match, shot only a fraction of the wides total put up by Down and played with great assurance throughout the 70 minutes.

Although the forwards were inventively deployed the last day, Kevin Madden's availability after injury strengthens the options and he is likely to feature sooner rather than later. Centrefield was immense with Sheeny McQuillan making a big contribution in play as well as on the scoreboard. The problem is that he and Joe Quinn face the best combination in the game at present, Anthony Tohill and Dermot Heaney.

Antrim will be fired up but after a disintegrating Down, Derry represent too high a jump in class.