Confidence high in Down says Hughes

By Shaun Casey

DONAL Hughes was the Down hero when his side defeated Antrim in the final round of the National League just four weeks ago. His late goal stole the show as Ronan Sheehan’s men picked up their first, and only, win of the Division 1B campaign.

Now, more important matters are on the horizon. It’s all about championship and the Mourne men will want to give the competition a real rattle. As fate would have it, Ulster foes Antrim are their first-round opponents.

Down have cemented their place among the Joe McDonagh Cup ranking, competing in the tournament for the last few years, but this weekend, they face the side that are fancied to go all the way.

When Hughes rattled the back of the net a month ago, Down were in the familiar setting of Páirc Esler, Newry. But this Saturday, they’re on enemy territory. Still, Hughes believes their recent win over Antrim will provide their changing room with plenty of confidence.

“I have been playing senior hurling for Down for a long time and I have never beaten Antrim at senior level,” said the big Bredagh midfielder.

“For us to get that win is massive, it is a confidence builder, and we are going out to win the Joe McDonagh now and it sets us up well.

“We’ve had three weeks of hard training. It’s Antrim again and I am sure they will be looking to overturn that result and win the game.

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He continued: “It was a big win and that can only give us confidence going into the Joe McDonagh. Last year we were probably at the other end of some big wins, and it doesn’t set you up too well to playing teams at a higher level.

“This year we have been playing teams at a higher level, and it will be all teams around our level from now on. We have been trying to keep ourselves in the Joe McDonagh Cup over the past few years, but I think we have to start trying to win it.”

Down’s Division 1B experience didn’t quite pan out the way they would have wanted, having suffered a swift return to Division Two for 2027. But playing at that higher level, competing against teams like Clare and Dublin, can only be a good thing moving forward.

“We have performed well in a lot of games but, again, it has been frustrating. Hard luck stories are no good to us – we wanted to stay in the division but that didn’t happen, so that is disappointing, but what we can do now is built on this win and push on in the championship.

“Division 1B is where we want to be. We are going down and we will look back with a few regrets over a couple of games, but these are the games we want to be playing in.

“We took some big losses, but it is Clare and Dublin we want to be playing, and we need to work to get back to 1B now and build for the championship.”