‘The players showed character’ says Down manager Conor Laverty after crucial win over Westmeath

The Mourne County manager Conor Laverty spoke after the game and he praised both sides for their part in an entertaining game, before lauding the character of his winning team.

“Both teams were there to go and win that match, and both teams played on the front foot at every opportunity,” he said.

“I thought their attack-to-score ratio was brilliant, and some of the points they kicked were fabulous. But I’m very, very proud of them lads and the character they showed at the start of the second half, having gone down by three points.

“I think that’s the difference in this Down team at present, they have something about them that whenever their backs are against the wall, they have shown character over the past number of years.”

Down go into the final round level on points with Louth, but having been beaten by the Wee County, they need to better their result in Round Seven. That won’t be easy, as they travel to table-toppers Monaghan, and they will be hopeful of Meath doing them a favour in their game against Louth, but Laverty is content that his side is still ‘in the mix’ heading into the final round.

“We didn’t chat about staying in the division, relegation or anything like that,” said Laverty, regarding how his team approached the game.

“We feel as though it is in our own hands. Going into the last day, we just wanted to be in the mix. All we chatted about over the last two weeks has been ‘get a performance… well, get a win, not even a performance, just get a win someway’, because we had playing well in games but getting beat. We wanted to get over the line and see where that takes us going into the last day.”

With survival in Division 2 at stake for Westmeath and with Down knowing that a loss would leave them in a vulnerable position heading into the final round of games, Laverty said that there was a ‘do or die’ atmosphere in Pairc Esler.

“I thought our crowd were brilliant tonight, and I thought that the atmosphere was fantastic,” said the Down manager.

“But their [Westmeath’s] response to that was brilliant. Luke Loughlin’s two-pointer from in front of the dug-outs was a special, special kick. I felt that there was a real ‘do or die’ atmosphere tonight – we knew it was all or nothing. It was knock-out stuff, because whoever was beaten tonight were probably going to be relegated.”