By everyone, I mean RTE, the Irish Times (can’t find the link for this but, trust me, Sean Moran tips us to win), the Indo and Paddy Power (who are now quoting us at 4/11 to prevail).  As well as that, 82% of respondents to the poll on this site have voiced the same opinion.  Well then, after that lot I suppose we’d better bloody go and win it.

We obviously should win tomorrow, as Westmeath – their two current All-Stars notwithstanding – are the one county in Division 1 (apart, perhaps, from ourselves) that all of the others will view as easy prey.  Although we haven’t exactly set the world alight in our two opening games, they’ve fared worse and the 14-point hammering that Derry inflicted on them up in Ballinascreen the weekend before last has left them rooted to the bottom of the table with no points in the bag and with the worst point difference in the Division.  We’re at home, they’re missing proven players such as Dessie Dolan and Donal O’Donoghue and while we have our own absentees through injury, you’d have to think that this is a game we’ll win by at least three or four points.

I’m definitely hors de combat for this one as I’m still mired in the land of snot but I will be listening in on the game over the internet and providing an avalanche of updates to the site via Twitter during the afternoon.  In addition, my spies will be dotted around Fr O’Hara Park, watching the action closely and reporting back.

Before I go, it’s worth mentioning that the ever-excellent Keith Duggan had a wonderfully evocative piece in today’s Times about what it means to be a hard-core League supporter.  I think you’ll find that, as he always seems to do, Keith hits the mark pretty well on this one.