GAELIC GAMES ULSTER SFC CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL:ANTRIM ARE surprise arrivals at Ulster's top table this weekend. The statistics of their rare appearance are striking: 39 years since the last provincial final and 58 since a last title.

The season of the county’s 10th and still most recent Ulster title left them second only to Cavan. In the decades since, Monaghan, Down – whose first provincial success post-dated 1951 – and most recently Armagh have all passed by on the way up the roll of honour.

Going in against All-Ireland champions Tyrone means the county will continue to be underdogs, as they were in the championship matches to date against Donegal and Cavan.

But this has been a season of steady improvement for Antrim. Under Derryman Liam Bradley they have already been promoted to Division Three before having the best championship run in decades.

Cavan manager Tom Carr was impressed by the side that defeated his team in the semi-finals.

“They’re the best Antrim team that I’ve seen in modern times. One of the elements in that improvement is that although they’ve always had good footballers, this year they seem to have the bit between their teeth in terms of attitude and attention to the game plan. There’s also a degree of confidence that hasn’t been there before.

“We knew going in that they wouldn’t be cowed and would come straight at us but small things can have a massive bearing on matches. We opened well but put four or five balls wide from scoreable positions. That gave them a good start and suddenly we were under pressure.

“We found that they operated as a team, all players playing on the ball, supporting from wing forward and in particular wing back. They also had a fantastic work rate. A lot of teams don’t understand that type of work – that it’s not just running around for the sake of it but being in the right place to support movement or defend.

“For instance, they make meaningful tackles when they cover defensively. It’s not just getting back and shadowing.”

There had been indicators that Antrim football was improving: a Tommy Murphy Cup victory in Croke Park last year and three years previously an All-Ireland club final appearance by Belfast’s St Gall’s.

Sunday’s venture recalls the 1987 match when the county drew with a Tyrone side that had lost the previous September’s All-Ireland final against Kerry – before losing the replay.

Tyrone are this time defending All-Ireland champions and to date have looked formidable in what has been their best title defence of the three to date and the first that threatens to bring in an Ulster championship.

Carr isn’t, however, pessimistic about Antrim despite the misgivings that a team so inexperienced at this level may struggle to keep in touch with such accomplished opponents.

“Antrim won’t get turned over – I’d nearly put my house on it. They may well be undone by bits and pieces of naivety and inexperience or simply by not being cute enough. But in terms of possession and scoring ability they will compete.”

Asked what impressed him about the performance against Cavan, Carr is unequivocal.

“Their ability to attack. They hurt us with the amount of possession they won: 11-4 in the second half – we couldn’t get our hands on the ball. We have to take some of the responsibility for that ourselves but it gave them a great platform.

“Overall they took four or five clean possessions in either half while we got none so that’s around 10 clear attacks we had to cope with.

“People said that Donegal had 17 wides but balanced against that is that Antrim had 10 wides and dropped seven scoring attempts short. In other words Antrim created as many scoring chances as Donegal but whereas we would have expected Donegal to finish better, in fact they didn’t.”

The last manager to take an Antrim football team to senior provincial honours was St Gall’s coach John Rafferty. His comments on the club’s success at the end of 2005 could be a mission statement for Clones on Sunday.

“Just because you come out of Antrim doesn’t mean that you have to be treated like a second-class citizen. These fellas are all talented individuals and they’ve all worked hard on skills and attitude the whole way through the youth structure. They’re as good as anybody else. They didn’t believe it before now but I hope to God they believe it now.”