Despondent Down face Longford trial

Despondent Down face Longford trial

8 June 2016

DOWN’S senior footballers will have no time to ponder’s Sunday’s horror show in Clones as they get ready for an All-Ireland Qualifier against Longford at the end of the month.

Yesterday morning’s draw paired Eamon Burns’ men against the O’Farrell County, who fell at the first hurdle in Leinster when beaten 2-21 to 2-13 by Offaly.

Any Down fan thinks that this is an easy draw should think again. Longford are no mugs and more than held their own against Offaly a fortnight ago.

However, Down’s loss on Sunday was the biggest defeat in their illustrious championship history. The heaviest previous defeat was a 17 point reversal against Monaghan in Newry 80 years ago.

These truly are dark times for football in the county.

Defeat in Clones rubbed more salt in a wound that was opened with the exits from the provincial stage of the minors and U-21s in the past few months. The 19-point margin was embarrassing as it was galling.

Burns took on a poisoned chalice of a job that nobody else wanted and the panel that he assembled worked hard towards Sunday’s objective of beating Monaghan, but that just did not happen. 

The defection of a number of players from the squad last week didn’t help preparations while the continued unavailability of some of the most talented players in the county continues to hinder progress.

Burns has vowed that his side will “keep battling.” Defeat leaves the Mourne men without a win in 14 months.

“We are not dead,” the Down manager insisted. “It is not the end of the world, but as you can imagine, the mood is quite sombre. We are still trying to piece together what happened.

“Everybody will judge the game, people sitting in the stand will have their opinion, but we will move on from here, we are still alive.

“I’ve got to be mindful of the players I have in the changing room and it’s a sharp learning curve for them. We had five debutants and we brought on another one or two, so that’s half our team. We’ll keep battling.”

“We need to get ready for the qualifiers.” A lot of scathing assessments have emerged in recent days of the direction that Down as a county are moving in and the vultures are circling.

If the backdoor journey ends unceremoniously then turbulent times are not far off the horizon.