David Gough has taken a minute to speak to both captains to make them aware that the clock inside the stadium has stopped at 52 seconds, which will need to be rectified to avoid confusion over the hooter.

Lachlan Murray responds immediately for Derry.

Niall Burns opens the scoring for the Saffrons inside two minutes.

Referee David Gough throws the ball in, and the first of the 2026 Ulster Championship quarter-finals begins

Anthem time.

Can Derry get back to winning ways in the Ulster Championship, or will Antrim pull off a shock and pick up their first provincial win since 2014?

Stay with us to find out!

Our experts have had their say on how they see this one will go and who will take the game on.

Thumbs up if you agree, thumbs down if you don't!

Derry manager Ciaran Meenagh says it is "madness" to install his side as favourite to reach this year's Ulster final.

The Oak Leafers open on Saturday against Antrim at Celtic Park [17:00 BST, live on BBC Two NI, BBC iPlayer, website & app] and are odds-on to advance into a semi-final against either Monaghan or Cavan.

Meenagh was at the helm on an interim basis when Derry last captured the Anglo Celt Cup in 2023 and after a positive Division Two league campaign, they enter the provincial championship with raised expectations after a difficult few years.

However, the Derry boss is not buying into that and insists they can't look past this week's challenge.

"Monaghan have operated at a higher level than Derry for a long, long time; Cavan were more than a match for Derry in the last league game, a game that we just about won," Meenagh said.

"You look at Antrim last year against Armagh and they led by a point at half-time and after 45 minutes.

"It will be preparing to win one game and if you are lucky enough to win that game, it is about winning another game.

"What will help us is getting all our players on the pitch. If you look at the Derry team over the last two years, the reasons why it didn't go well, ultimately the management didn't have the full quota of players."

The sides met at the beginning of the year in the Dr McKenna Cup, a game won by Derry who pulled away in the second half.

The championship arena is a different proposition and with Antrim's new management team now settled into the role with the Saffrons winning their last four games in Division Four, Meenagh is not downplaying this week's task.

"You have to give everybody their due respect and I've a lot of respect for Mark [Doran], Paul Bradley, the McCanns [Mick and Eamon], I'd be a fool if I didn't.

"We played them in the McKenna Cup and both teams would have a good few players played that night. It'll be all focus on them.

"Winning's a habit and they've won four games in a row, so they go into the championship with a bit of momentum as well."

Image source, Inpho

Conor Meyler
Former Tyrone player on BBC Two NI

Both teams will have different aspirations for this year.

Derry will be looking at an Ulster final with Antrim looking at the Tailteann Cup starting in a few weeks.

Antrim are my second team so I'd love to see a performance here but I struggle to see where it will come from.

As we mentioned at the top, the Oak Leafers have some more recent successful history in the Ulster Championship.

After a two-point win over Donegal in 2022, Ciaran Meenagh's side came out on the right side of an epic final a year later with a penalty shoot-out win over Armagh.

Since then, Championship football as become a bit of a struggle.

Their 2024 & 2025 Ulster campaigns ended in a thumping defeats to Donegal in the quarter-finals and the preliminary round respectively.

In the All-Ireland, they squeaked into the quarter-finals in 2024 before a defeat to Kerry - and a year ago didn't make it out of their qualifying group.

So will 2026 be the year it starts to click for Derry again?

Image source, Inpho

No changes to either named team.

Derry manager Ciaran Meenagh will be thrilled to welcome back Eoin McEvoy and Conor McCluskey for today's quarter-final.

McCluskey returns at corner-back for the first time since late January, in one of three changes from the Oakleafers' final league game when they defeated Cavan.

McEvoy starts for the first time this season and plays in midfield, with Conor Glass named at centre-forward.

Conor Doherty returns having missed that 1-20 to 0-19 victory over Cavan.

Shea McGuckin is set for his Championship debut in goals. Ryan Scullion will wear no.16 with Odhran Lynch still ruled out.

Shane McGuigan will line out at full forward in what is set to be his 100th appearance in a Derry jersey.

Shea Downey and Niall Toner sit on an otherwise inexperienced Oakleaf bench.

As for Antrim, Mark Doran also makes three changes to his side for the trip to Foyleside, with Marc Jordan, Adam Loughran and Conor Hand making the first 15.

John McNabb, aged 33, is also set for a Championship debut between the posts. Derry: Shea McGuckin; Diarmuid Baker, Ruairi Forbes, Conor McCluskey; Conor Doherty, Gareth McKinless, Padraig McGrogan; Eoin McEvoy, Brendan Rogers; Ethan Doherty, Conor Glass, Paul Cassidy; Niall Loughlin, Shane McGuigan, Lachlan Murray.

Subs: Ryan Scullion, Charlie Diamond, Shea Downey, Sean Kearney, Patrick McGurk, Ryan Mulholland, James Murray, Niall O'Donnell, Ruairi O Mianain, Niall Toner, Sean Young.

Antrim: John McNabb; John Morgan, Eunan Walsh, Kavan Keenan; Eoghan McCabe, Peter Healy, Marc Jordan; Paddy McAleer, Joesph Finnegan; Conor Hand, Adam Loughran, Ronan Boyle; Niall Burns, Pat Shivers, Dominic McEnhill.

Subs: Declan Heery, Tiernan McCormack, Ruairi Hagan, Benen Kelly, Jack Lenehan, Cathal Hynds, Tom Shivers, Oisin Doherty, Ryan McQuillan, Kevin Small, Tomas McCann.

Image source, BBC Sport

Joining Mark today we have a couple of All-Ireland winners and one of Antrim's longest servants.

Oisin McConville is back wearing his pundit hat today after guiding Wicklow to an opening victory in the Leinster Championship last weekend.

He's joined by 2021 All-Ireland winner with Tyrone Conor Meyler and Antrim stalwart Paddy McBride.

Image source, BBC Sport

As we mentioned here, Antrim haven't had the most illustrious of recent history in this competition.

Finalists in 2009 where they were beaten by Tyrone, the Saffrons last got their hands on this trophy in 1951.

But in recent years, even wins have been hard to come by.

Their last victory in the Ulster Championship came in 2014 - a 2-18 to 3-13 win over Fermanagh - so with now 12 years having passed, our man David Mohan had a look at some of the reasons why....

Image source, Inpho

BBC iPlayer

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For Antrim to upset the odds at Celtic Park on Saturday [17:00 BST], manager Mark Doran feels "it will take a lot of things to go right for us and a lot to go wrong for Derry".

The Saffrons enter the game as rank outsiders to end their wait for a first victory on the provincial stage since 2014, going into the backyard of an Oak Leaf side that rediscovered its spark in Division Two this year.

Last year, Antrim pushed then All-Ireland champions Armagh for 45 minutes at the quarter-final stage, but ran out of steam as Kieran McGeeney's side pulled away.

Sustaining a 70-minute performance is imperative if Antrim are to upset the odds, but Doran is "under no illusions about the size of the task".

"All we can do is prepare the best we can, embrace it and for 70 minutes, give the best versions of themselves and you never know what will happen," the Longstone native told BBC Sport NI.

"You'd hope the players would take great confidence from that [Armagh game]. It's another year and we're going to Celtic Park, but the one thing we can control is making sure we are set up right and hopefully go and give a massive performance.

"It will take a lot of things to go right for us and a lot to go wrong for Derry, but it's championship and we all love sport as you never know what can happen."

Doran is no stranger to Derry football, having managed Slaughtneil in recent years and will come up against some of his former players this week including Brendan Rogers and Shane McGuigan.

However, Ciaran Meenagh's side is littered with quality which Doran knows only too well.

"It's easy saying you can shut them down, but doing it is a different matter," he accepts.

"Shane is one of the top forwards in Ireland, Brendan one of the top midfielders but you can play him anywhere.

"My three years in Derry I've seen so many good footballers, but with Shane and Brendan, they are really good people and you put that aside for 70 minutes and see if you can stop them."

Image source, Inpho

After last weekend's barn-stormer of an opener to the Ulster Championship between Armagh and Tyrone, can Derry and Antrim deliver similar goods today?

The Oak Leafers won back-to-back Anglo-Celt trophies in 2022 & 2023, while the Saffrons haven't won a game in their provincial championship since 2014 (more on that to come later).

So history sides with Ciaran Meenagh's Derry side for this clash at Celtic Park but with Championship football, you never know what could happen.

We'll have live video coverage of the match on this page, BBC iPlayer and on BBC Two NI plus live text updates and in-game clips too right here.

Thanks for joining us!