Westmeath to face Fermanagh in All-Ireland football qualifiers
Westmeath have been drawn at home to Fermanagh in the first round of the All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers.
The draw was conducted on RTE Radio 1 earlier this morning and Westmeath fans will be pleased that their county avoided big guns like Tyrone and Derry.
Fermanagh were narrowly beaten by Cavan in their Ulster championship clash at Enniskillen yesterday (Sunday), while Westmeath will be seeking redemption after shipping a 16-point defeat to Dublin in Croke Park on June 1.
The fact that Westmeath will be at home to the Erne men is significant advantage as a trip to Enniskillen would represent a far trickier assignment.
Peter Canavan's Fermanagh side were in Division 3 of this year's League and they came close to securing promotion. For their part, Westmeath did secure promotion from Division 2 and most observers will expect them to win the forthcoming qualifier.
Interestingly, however, Fermanagh travelled to Mullingar back in 2002 and defeated Westmeath fairly comfortably in an All-Ireland qualifier.
It was Offaly who drew the short straw this morning, having have been paired with Tyrone, the only team in the draw who played in Division 1 of this year's Allianz Football League. Although Tyrone were pulled out of the hat first, Offaly will have home advantage as they were away in the first round of last year's qualifiers.
Although Roscommon lost their opening championship match of the 2013 campaign yesterday, the Rossies were not in the first round draw as their clash against Mayo was a provincial championship semi-final. Roscommon will face one of the first round winners in round 2.
The first round matches are due to be played on Saturday, June 29 and Sunday, June 30. Fixture details will be confirmed at a later stage.
The full draw is as follows.
All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers Round 1
(First named teams at home)
Offaly v Tyrone
Galway v Tipperary
Derry v Sligo
Westmeath v Fermanagh
Carlow v Laois
Armagh v Wicklow
Louth v Antrim
Longford v Limerick