Leitrim may have cantered to victory in their last two visits to Gaelic Park, but a combination of their own recent Championship form and the presence of Jamie Clarke in the New York line-up leaves many believing we could witness a Connacht championship first this weekend.
They've long been presumed to be the Connacht team most vulnerable to a Championship upset on foreign soil but Leitrim have usually succeeded in getting out of Dodge with a win and, in the last fixture between these sides five years ago, they absolutely battered New York 4-19 to 0-07.
Unfortunately, they subsequently lost a Connacht semi-final replay to London and their summer ended in a blizzard of goals in a Carrick-on-Shannon qualifier against Armagh. Most worryingly, New York's new star forward hit 2-03 that day and ran riot in the full-forward line. Clarke's presence this weekend has seen the hosts' odds shorten to 11/8.
Seamus Quinn, current selector and one of the county's greatest ever players, bluntly acknowledges that the likes of New York and London, typically fatalistic when asked to play Mayo or Galway, always scent an opportunity whenever Leitrim arrive in town.
"Leitrim will always have that (fear of getting caught). You'd be trying to instill that into players," he told RTÉ Sport.
"Of course, they are looking at Leitrim as one of the weakest counties in Connacht so they'll be saying this is their chance. We are trying to make our players very aware of that."
It is New York's 20th year of competing in the Connacht championship. Their 19 successive defeats have come in all shapes and sizes. Over the years, they've suffered a fair few unsightly maulings, been beaten comprehensively but retained their dignity, given it a rattle before fading in the final quarter; and, on a couple of occasions, taken teams to the brink of humiliation.
Two years ago, with Galway hurler Johnny Glynn occupying a midfield berth, New York came within a point of Kevin McStay's Roscommon.
Back in 2010, during that forgotten season when Joe Kernan managed Galway, 13-man New York trailed the Tribesmen by just two points as the game entered the final five minutes. A Cormac Bane goal in injury-time would ultimately give Galway a highly flattering seven-point win.
But thus far, the closest New York have come to stealing a victory was when they took Leitrim to extra-time in 2003.
While it was a valiant effort by New York, the game is probably now best remembered - by those who remember it at all - for the post-match travails of Leitrim's Ciaran Murray who got into a spot of bother at JFK airport.
As the Leitrim squad waited to board their flight back to Mary Horan's country, Murray nudged one of the airport officials and told them there was a bomb in his bag. (For illustration, the Peter Cook character got away with just a glare for a similar-ish joke in the Cold War era in Not Only But Always here).
Airport security personnel have never been what one might term 'gas craic' - at least in their professional guise - and they were especially unwilling to entertain such japes so soon after the 9/11 attacks.
A remorseful Murray was held behind in New York and was eventually sentenced to 70 hours community service and given a $250 fine.
"I know Ciaran is deeply embarrassed about this and deeply sorry for what has happened," county board secretary Stephen Flynn told the press at the time. "If the same thing had been said at Knock or Shannon it might have been laughed at, but it was not the place or time for a comment like that."
The game itself was a similarly hair-raising affair for Leitrim.
"It was a very physical game, one of the most physical games I ever played in because they just want to get a win, get a scalp of some Connacht team," remembers Quinn.
With Manorhamilton's Frank Brady serving as a selector for New York, the hosts tore into Leitrim and led by four points as half-time approached. The visitors grabbed three timely points to reduce the gap to one at the interval but it was apparent this was going to be an uncomfortable evening.
New York, as ever, boasted a smattering of ex-county stars from elsewhere in their ranks. Former Galway (and Galway United) forward Fergal O'Neill and Kerry attacker Bingo O'Driscoll lobbed over points to give the US exiles a two-point lead early in the second half.
In the final seconds, Leitrim still trailed by a point and looked dead and buried. However, at a time of high stress, they showed admirable composure to go short from a '45 and work a score which was sent over by Padraig McLoughlin.
Points deep in extra-time from McLoughlin and Shane Canning gave them a 0-14 to 0-12 win. Quinn wouldn't survive to the end of extra-time as he saw red before the finish.
"We went to extra-time and to be honest we were lucky to get there. All I remember from the game is getting a red card at the end of it."
For Quinn, the 2003 season was close to the end of the line. He would retire at the end of the following season as the last surviving member from the blessed summer of 1994. In the eyes of the wider public, Leitrim had long since returned to their natural habitat in the football wilderness.
While their '94 Connacht victory is usually portrayed as a Gaelic football miracle, Leitrim could easily have mined more provincial titles out of their glory years in the first half of the 1990s.
The western province hit rock bottom in the early '90s and Leitrim, boasting a rich crop in a time of recession, were as good as what was around.
Two years running, in 1993 and 1994, they knocked a Galway team containing several future All-Ireland winners out of the Championship.
In 1995, they hosted Galway in the first ever live televised game in the Connacht championship. They led by two points heading into injury time but points from Jarlath Fallon and Sean Óg De Paor levelled it up before Niall Finnegan won the match for the Tribesmen with a long-range free.
"We robbed them," Ja Fallon recalled in his Laochra Gael programme years later. The manner in which Galway ran roughshod over Mayo in the subsequent Connacht final suggested Leitrim had another provincial victory in them.
Quinn shone brighter than any other player in that era and earned an All-Star for his efforts in '94, their only one that year and only their second ever.
Looking back, he certainly thinks there was more in them.
"I thought I was going to have a good few of them at 20 years of age. You have to take it when you get it. It doesn't come around that often."
Since the mid-90s, Leitrim football has had a kind of 'morning after optimism' feel. A feeling that the best days have already been and gone and they aren't going to come around again any time soon.
There have been occasional bright spots. They reached their last Connacht decider in 2000 after an unlikely one-point win over Roscommon in Hyde Park.
Quinn himself barrelled forward to kick the winning score, completing a remarkable second-half comeback. Since then, they've managed two Connacht championship wins over Sligo (2005 and 2011) and have registered a handful of wins over Division 4 opposition in the qualifiers. That's been more or less it.
Theoretically, things can only get better but realistically, Leitrim haven't the resources to actually make them any better. Or at least, make them much better.
Ennui set in long ago.
At this stage, Quinn is ready to contemplate a two-tier championship.
"Everyone wants to play for the Connacht championship and the Sam Maguire. Fellas have to be realistic too. Are we ever going to compete with Dublin, Kerry? That's population again.
"Mayo, Galway have populations. Everyone wants to play for the Championship, hard to call but a two-tier probably would work.
"There is just too big a turnover of lads every year... It's heavy defeats, you have players drifting off because they see no light at the end of the tunnel."
Listen to live radio commentary of New York v Leitrim on RTÉ Radio 1's Sport Extra from 7pm and live blog on RTÉ Sport.
