By Niall McCoy

THREE of the last four Ulster Championships have produced at least one sizeable shock, so why can’t Down keep that run going at home to Donegal on Sunday afternoon?

Well, for many reasons would be the expected retort, but Paddy Tally’s side have a puncher’s chance and over the last couple of years the underdog has been able to find that one strike to take down more vaunted opposition.

Last year, of course, it was Cavan’s stunning win over Donegal in the Ulster final with Conor Madden landing the knockout blow with a late goal. In 2018 it was the fist of Eoin Donnelly that ensured that Fermanagh shocked Monaghan in the semi-final and while there was no one stand-out moment the year before, the late Eamonn Burns did guide the Mourne county to a memorable semi-final win over the Oriel county.

In each and every one of those cases, the winning belief was contained almost exclusively to the dressing room of the underdog, and Tally said that their own enclosed space would be filled with confidence in the run up to the Páirc Esler clash.

“Donegal have been at the cutting edge of championship football for many years now,” said Tally.

“They’ve been pushing not just for numerous Ulster titles but they’ve been the team that people say could take Dublin. This time last year they were tipped as that team.

“That hasn’t changed an awful lot, in fact they’ve brought a few more players in which will strengthen their squad.

“The backbone of that team has been there for eight or nine years now and Odhran MacNiallais, who is a superb footballer, is back in. They have been tried and tested in pressure situations and have come through them.

“We have no doubt about how difficult it will be but I am very happy with what we have here. If you spend too much time focussing on the opposition you’ll forget what we’re good at.

“My attitude is respect the opposition, do our analysis, but let’s focus on Down. Let’s focus on what our players can do.”

The Mourne county have a bit of momentum built up too having defeated Westmeath in their last Division Two North game while they got the better of Laois in their relegation play-off clash.

The latter of those seemed particularly significant as Down did something they haven’t done too often under Tally, score heavily.

The 2-19 they racked up was only the second time they broke the 20-point barrier in their 22 league and championship games under Tally. It was only the fifth time they managed two or more goals.

Generally you know what you’re going to get with Down scoring wise, and that’s a range of 12 scores to 16. Almost 70 percent of their tallies under the current management have come in that zone. It goes without saying that they will have to exceed their scoring expectations if they are to have any chance at Páirc Esler.

“The pitch was dry (against Laois), there was a dry ball and it suited the players we had,” said Tally.

“Another aspect of it is that we are only four games in so there hasn’t been a lot of time. It takes time to embed patterns of play and how you want the boys to attack.

“Laois had to come looking the win so both teams had to go for it. We got a start on the, and they had to come out and play, so it left gaps at the back and we were able to exploit those.

“Hopefully we will be able to get those patterns and good attacking play going against Donegal.”