Down hoping that their quality off the bench can make the difference against Sligo this Sunday

“When you kick a ball off a wall as a Primary School child you dream of playing in Croke Park, in front of big crowds and representing your county.”

Down head to Croke Park for the fourth time in the space of 12 months this Sunday, as they meet Sligo in the last four of the Tailteann Cup.

The Mourne men have been perfect so far in terms of results, seeing off Limerick, London, Offaly and Wicklow, but Down assistant manager Mickey Donnelly believes that the team has more in the tank than they have shown so far.

“We're happy with the results, but there are areas within our performances that we're not overly delighted with,” he said.

“I wouldn't say that they are areas of concern, but they are areas in which we can build upon and grow.

“We felt against Wicklow that we were a little bit flat to be honest. In the first half we felt as though we weren't putting enough pressure on their possession, and we weren't clinical enough when we had our hands on the ball.

“Those are the areas that we have been really focusing on since the Wicklow game a fortnight ago.”

Next up for Down is a Sligo team that has been performing well recently. They pushed Galway to the brink in the Connacht Championship, coming close to victory with just a two-point loss. Similar to Down, Sligo have also secured four consecutive wins, including a dominant 17-point victory over Limerick last time out.

Sligo’s forward line is particularly potent, with talented scorers such as Sean Carrabine, Lee Deignan and Niall Murphy, and Donnelly was full of praise for this weekend’s opponents.

“I don't want to be disrespectful to any of the opponents we have played, but Sunday will be a huge jump in class,” said Donnelly.

“We're playing a Sligo team who beat Westmeath in a very important league game. They went to Mullingar and turned them over by six points; we had two digs at Westmeath and couldn't do that. They took Galway down the stretch in the Connacht Championship and it was a late goal that beat them.

“They have good players and a very, very strong forward line which will take an awful lot of watching. They get scores from their half-back line through [Darragh] Cummins and [Nathan] Mullen.

“They have four or five forwards who will command a lot of attention. Sometimes when you're playing in Division 3 or the Tailteann Cup it's rare to come up against a forward line with the personnel that they have.

“They played Antrim twice this year, scoring 0-20 the last day and 1-20 in the league. We have got to be on our guard to ensure that it doesn't turn into a shootout.”

Against Wicklow, one notable factor was the quality of player which Down were able to introduce from the bench, including electric forwards Danny Magill, Oisin Savage, Liam Kerr (who all scored) and Ryan Johnston.

Donnelly says that every team needs to be introducing capable substitutes, and he is hopeful that they can make an impact this weekend.

“Not just in Gaelic Games but sport in general, you are seeing more and more the importance of having a strong squad,” said the Down assistant manager.

“Look at the impact having more subs has made in rugby; look at the Euros, teams are changing their entire front three because invariably they have been working their backsides off for 70 minutes.

“The way things are panning out now, the players who finish the game are of equal importance to those who start the game.

“Games are nearly divided into chapters now. The first part can be very attritional and a bit of an arm wrestle. Then the question becomes 'what can you do to change the game?'

“At the minute, we are lucky that we have players who can do that, and we're hoping that when they are needed that we will get an impact from the bench.”

Having lost in the final last year, there is no doubt that Down have been followed with a certain level of expectation throughout their Tailteann Cup campaign, with many tipping them as favourites.

Donnelly says that Down can’t pay attention to the outside noise, and the levels of expectation on the group lie within.

“We don't have a sports psychologist as such, but from the management team we are always keen to drive high standards,” he said.

“It's that idea of the faceless opponent. We try to ensure that these lads are playing to the best levels that they can, whether they are playing Armagh who are one of the best teams in the country or a team who are coming out of Division 4 in the Tailteann Cup.

“We have got to come to a level of consistency within the group where it doesn't matter who we're playing against, that we can put in a performance.

“That's the message which we deliver to the lads. When we analyse a game, we're not always necessarily analysing the result, we're analysing whether we were at it on the day in terms of intensity; did we meet the standards regarding the quality of our handpassing or the quality of our man-marking?”

As previously mentioned, this will be Down’s fourth trip to Croke Park in the space of a year, and they are well acquainted with Headquarters at this stage.

They had a great day in Croker in the Tailteann Cup semi last year, as they steamrolled eight goals past Laois, but they have had bad days out in their last two visits – losing the final against Meath last July, before they fell in the Division 3 decider against Westmeath in March.

Despite their highs and lows, Donnelly says that there is a great level of excitement in the camp about this weekend’s game.

“Our lads are extremely excited about the prospect of going down to Dublin on Sunday,” he said.

“When you kick a ball off a wall as a Primary School child you dream of playing in Croke Park, in front of big crowds and representing your county.

“The issue has been that consistency of performance and the venue has been irrelevant.

“We have got to get back to playing well, and we felt as though the performance against Wicklow fell short of the standards which we set for ourselves. However, we have a chance to put that right on Sunday.”