‘Down football has come a long way’ says manager Conor Laverty despite unlucky relegation
It was the result and the performance Down wanted on Sunday in Clones and while the outcome of relegation couldn’t have been worse, manager Conor Laverty is looking at the bigger picture and had nothing but praise for his players.
“Probably games from previously in the league came back to haunt us today,” he said with a wry smile.
“But coming here today, I would have felt it was in our own hands – that the other results, with Cavan and Meath looking for promotion that they were going to get victories. So fair play to Cork and Louth for getting their two victories, but I'm very, very proud of the lads.”
The manager has spoken a lot recently about the character his men have shown throughout their Division 2 campaign and that was on show again on Sunday.
“I think if results had have gone our way it would have given us a serious bounce, but I told them in there how proud I was of them and that I think Down football has come a long way over this past number of years and that's nothing to do with management or us, that's to do with the players.
“I think their culture has changed and their mindset has changed and I think that they have a real desire to compete with the top10 or 12 teams in Ireland. I believe, coming here today and getting a result like that and putting the performances in that we put in in the league, I think it's a realistic goal for this team.”
While the disappointment will take a while to get over, Down have four weeks before they begin their Ulster campaign.
“We haven't really concentrated much on championship football. We understand how fortunate we are to be in the Sam Maguire after winning the Tailteann Cup last year, but we've put a lot of energy into trying to maintain our Division 2 status.
“It has hurt us and it will probably hurt us over the next number of weeks and the curve that I would have seen this team going on and where I want this team to go, and on the grand plan of where I think we can go it's definitely a setback, but I don't think it's a drastic setback in the long term. Short term it might be but not maybe in the long term.
“It would have been great to have been playing in a couple of weeks because I think we would have got a lot of energy from that game and we would have got a bounce from that performance."
And Laverty believes it was indeed the best performance since his time in charge began.
“I probably feel Armagh last year was a different type of game with a different type of game-plan, I felt that the boys executed it really well. But I think in my time here, I think that was our best possible performance.
“I think that they were probably one of the best teams that we've come up against standard-wise. They're a seasoned Division 1 team and it shows that they were unfortunate last year to get relegated and they bounced straight back. So that's the standard. They're in the top eight teams in Ireland and we felt that in spells today we competed seriously well against them and proved the quality of players that are within this Down squad.
“This Down team are making good strides and moving in the right direction and I just hope that they bounce back from this and I hope the lads attack the championship the same way and with the same energy they put into the league.”