Royal appointment for Down this Sunday

National Football League Division Two North

Down v Meath

Sunday, Athletic Grounds, 3.45pm

HOO boy, that was a tough day out for Down at the weekend – but at least they aren’t facing one of the top teams of the last decade in their round two encounter against Meath.

Paddy Tally’s side lost by almost double scores (2-20 to 1-11) down in Castlebar, and it was difficult to draw many positives from the game, other than the fact that they fought manfully to the bitter end.

In terms of things to work on, they struggled to make it out of their own defence as a supremely efficient Mayo team dominated every sector, and they also struggled to gain possession from their own kick-outs (while goalkeeper Rory Burns had a day to forget, a lack of physical presence in the middle doesn’t make his life any easier and it’s not solely up to him to devise a workable kick-out strategy).

Their forwards didn’t find much joy either, and some of their more established names underperformed, but it’s still too early to write off their survival chances as their next few matches are against less prestigious opponents.

From a half-glass perspective, they seemed to improve when Liam Kerr and stalwart Darren O’Hagan, who has come back in good time after undergoing multiple surgeries last year, were introduced fairly early in the second half.

Even so, it’s fair to say that the mood is fairly gloomy in the Mourne county at present, but it’s amazing what a win or two can do for a team and they’ll be hopeful of getting a positive result against Meath at the Athletic Grounds on Sunday.

The Royal county nipped their arch rivals Westmeath by 0-16 to 0-15 at the weekend, so they’ll want to push on and even find themselves in the mix for promotion, which looked an unlikely prospect before a ball was kicked in the league.

They were lucky enough to emerge with the result, but you make your own luck and all that and they hit the final four points of the game.

Eamon Wallace popped up with the winner, but it was the subs who provided the impetus for their comeback with five second-half points.

It was their first league victory since defeating Fermanagh in March 2019, and Meath fans will be encouraged that they managed to unpick their opponents’ blanket defence in the second half as that’s something they’ve really struggled with down the years.

Still though, it’s fair to say that the Royals are very much a work in progress: they tried five or six different free-takers against Westmeath, which speaks for itself.

Most of their starting forwards were replaced, and they have a fairly predictable running game which is likely to be snuffed out by the better teams in the country.

Yet in saying that, they did show a lot of fight in the closing stages against Westmeath, while debut boy Fionn Reilly staked a claim for selection with an impressive cameo off the bench.

Moreover, it was only last year that they played in Division One while Down were plying their trade in Division Three, for what that’s worth.

When the chat is over and the ball’s thrown in this weekend, it should be a really competitive contest as both these teams will see this as a decent opportunity of picking up a league win. There’s more pressure on Down here, and maybe that will help rather than hinder them – time will only tell.

Verdict: Meath