On the ramble up Church Hill in Clones on Sunday afternoon, a seasoned Cavan Gael painted a picture for us of events in Mullingar the previous evening.He humbly imagined himself as having been some sort of courageous explorer, cut adrift from his tribe, but nonetheless unafraid to strain his vocal chords to let his team know they weren’t quite on their own at a sold-out Cusack Park.Every now and then, he explained, a fellow random lone Cavan supporter – overcome by the excitement – would involuntarily pop up out of their seats like a blue whack-a-mole only to quickly disappear back down within a mass of maroon and white again.Our explorer couldn’t remember ever seeing crowds of people behind the goals at either end of Cusack Park before. But, he confessed, it had been many years since his last visit.Surrounded on all sides by Westmeath supporters, he was a Cavan man behind enemy lines. Marooned, indeed. And he loved it.But when the game was there for Cavan, he felt it wasn’t just the will of the Westmeath players that pushed them backwards, but also the noise and fervour spilling in from the terraces and stand. Coming down the stretch, home advantage made a difference.Speaking to Off The Ball after the game, Cavan manager Dermot McCabe lamented: “It was probably 10,500 or 10,000 to our 1,000, but we gave them opportunities to shout.”Later on Sunday evening you could feel the rumble of energy moving around St Tiarnach’s Park when Monaghan’s surge arrived against Mayo. Suddenly, the stadium felt different. Visceral roars went up all across the ground, the home fans sensing another famous comeback. Twelve points adrift, now down to the minimum. The noise grew ever louder.Westmeath’s manager Mark McHugh celebrates with fans after beating Cavan. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Ultimately, Monaghan came up short by a single point but in those closing stages there was a special energy around the place – the will of a county trying to push their team over the line. In the end, the general feeling was Mayo had escaped with a one-point win. Because winning on the road is hard, right?It’s called “home advantage” for a reason, after all. Indeed, the most repeated message from all camps ahead of tomorrow’s All-Ireland senior football championship round two draw has been along the lines of: “We don’t mind who we get, but we’d like a home draw.”And there are enough formlines in the history of sport to back up the perception that playing at home is worth a score or two.Does anybody in Round 2B really fancy a trip to Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney in a fortnight? Or who is rubbing their hands in Round 2A at the prospect of a jaunt to the Athletic Grounds in Armagh? No, a home draw is preferable.And yet the stats from this year’s championship are massively out of kilter with the notion that a home game puts you in the box seat for a victory.There have been 37 senior intercounty football championship games played this year – with 11 home wins and 20 away victories. The remaining six games were played at neutral venues.In round one of the All-Ireland series, the split was an even four home wins and four away wins.But none of the four provincial championships produced more home wins than away victories.A young Monaghan fan looks on late in the game against Mayo. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Of the six games played in the Connacht SFC, five were won by the away team – with the only home victory coming in the provincial decider at Dr Hyde Park when Roscommon beat Galway.However, before that there had been away wins by Mayo (in London), Roscommon (in New York), Leitrim (in Sligo), Galway (in Leitrim) and Roscommon (in Mayo).The combined winning margins for the five away victories came in at 53 points, with Roscommon beating Galway in the final at the Hyde by two points.The Leinster SFC wasn’t any more favourable to home teams with just a single victory posted by a hosting county – Kildare beating Laois at the quarter-final stages.There were also four neutral games in Leinster, but of the 10 matches the Delaney Cup competition produced five away victories.Parnell Park might be Dublin’s official home ground but for the purposes of, well, reality – we are deeming Croke Park as a home game for the Dubs. Though given the paltry attendance on Sunday, are we nearing an era when Dublin might return to Donnycarney for some fixtures?The five away wins in Leinster were achieved by Laois (in Offaly), Wicklow (in Carlow), Westmeath (in Longford), Dublin (in Wicklow) and Westmeath (in Dublin, after extra-time). Those victories were won by a combined total of 51 points. Kildare beat Laois in St Conleth’s Park by five points.Mayo fans cheers on their team against Monaghan but they were well outnumbered in Clones. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Of the five games in the Munster SFC, there were three away wins and two home triumphs.The home wins were achieved by Cork over Limerick and Kerry against Cork. The away wins were chalked up by Tipperary (in Waterford), Kerry (in Clare) and Cork (in Tipperary).The three away wins were won by a combined total of 28 points while the two home wins tallied a total of 17 points.Ulster was the only province with an even split – three home wins, three away wins and two neutral matches.Armagh had a home win over Tyrone, after extra-time, Derry beat Antrim at Celtic Park and Monaghan beat Cavan in Clones. The away victories came from Armagh (in Fermanagh), Down (in Donegal) and Armagh (in Monaghan, after extra-time).The three home victories were achieved by a total of 21 points while the three away victories came in at 26 points.From all the 31 home-away games in this year’s championship, the combined winning margin of the home teams (11 wins) has been 70 points while the combined winning margin of the away teams (20 wins) has been 173 points.Westmeath fans watch their team beat Cavan. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Now, of course it is possible to massage statistics to suit whatever narrative one wants to peddle – and there are mitigating circumstances in the provincial system which pits Division One teams against sides from the lower divisions in what are often lopsided fixtures.And now we are the business end of the season, we might start to see the data start to shift towards home teams getting the job done in their backyard.However, the fact that essentially two thirds of all home-away championship fixtures this summer have been won by the away side is not nothing, either. As for our courageous Cavan explorer, he doesn’t mind who they get pitted against in tomorrow morning’s draw. So long as it’s a home game.