All-Ireland Football Championship: Donegal to host Tyrone as Monaghan face Kildare

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Donegal's Caolan McGonagle battles with Tyrone's Cormac Quinn in the Division One League game in FebruaryImage source, Inpho
Image caption,

Tyrone comfortably defeated Donegal back in February but the Tir Conaill men have regrouped in recent weeks following all the upheaval in the squad during the Spring

Donegal will face Tyrone in the All-Ireland Football Championship preliminary quarter-finals next weekend with Monaghan taking on Kildare, Galway v Mayo and Roscommon v Cork.

Aidan O'Rourke's Donegal side will have home advantage on Saturday evening.

Kildare were drawn first but the Monaghan tie will be in Saturday in Tullamore as Newbridge is unavailable.

In the Tailteann Cup semi-finals, Antrim will play Meath with Down up against Laois.

The Tailteann ties will both take place at Croke Park next Sunday, with the Antrim v Meath opener particularly intriguing given that Saffron County boss Andy McEntee managed the Royals for six seasons up to last summer.

Antrim's game with Meath will throw in at 14:00 BST with the Down v Laois tussle following at 16:00.

However, the main headlines from Monday morning's championship draws were the preliminary quarter-finals.

ALL-IRELAND SFC PRELIMINARY QUARTER-FINALS

Cork

v

Roscommon

Pairc Ui Chaoimh

Saturday, 14:00 BST

Kildare

v

Monaghan

Tullamore,

Saturday, 16:45

Donegal

v

Tyrone

Ballybofey

Saturday, 19:00

Galway

v

Mayo

Salthill

Sunday, 15:00

As many predicted following their respective defeats against Armagh and Cork on Sunday, Galway have been drawn against their big Connacht rivals Mayo, with Padraic Joyce's side having home advantage.

The Tribesmen were edged out 0-16 to 1-12 by Armagh in Carrick-on-Shannon which secured the Orchard County direct passage through to the quarter-finals on the weekend of 1-2 July.

Mayo, meanwhile, went into Sunday's game leading their group but a second-half collapse against Cork saw them lose a six-point lead as they slipped to third in the table following the defeat.

For their part, Tyrone will be relieved to be still involved as they would have suffered a second successive early championship exit had Westmeath's John Heslin landed a late free at Breffni Park.

However, he missed the difficult chance which enabled the Red Hands to hold on for a 0-18 to 0-18 draw as they squeezed into Monday morning's draw.

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