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Ulster final pressure is nothing unto Ward - 11/07/03 2003
Ulster Football Championship - Final
Tyrone vs Down 
@ 2.30 p.m. Clones, Sunday 13th July 2003
Ulster final pressure is nothing unto Ward by Kenny Archer Irish News
Article taken from Fridays Irish
News
DOWN skipper Sean Ward insists his side are not under any pressure ahead of Sunday’s Ulster final against Tyrone – but they will be expected to win it! Strange as that may sound, there’s a twisted logic that makes more sense when you consider the mindset of Mourne football followers, as Ward explains:
“Coming from a county with a good tradition, like Down, getting to finals you’re expected to win them.
“Obviously people are aware that Tyrone are a very good side, they have a lot of good players, Sean Cavanagh, Cormac McAnallen, Gerard Cavlan. I’ve played against a few of them, phenomenal players – and that’s without looking at the great man himself.
“We don’t feel under pressure from within the county, but there is an air of expectancy when you get that far, people keep looking one step ahead.
“But there’s not a great deal of pressure, people are willing us to do well, more than anything else. We’ll be aiming to go out on Sunday and give it our best anyway...We’ve done a lot of work and we deserve to be there, in my eyes.”
Proud though he is of Down’s footballing achievements, Ward feels that the past should be put into perspective, put where it belongs:
“History, is exactly what they say it is, it’s history.
“I wouldn’t be one for looking back at games in the past, or previous form, or even to league form this year – particularly not in Championship.
“Come Sunday, it’s two teams going all out to win an Ulster title and it’ll really come down to the team that performs best on the day.”
Down are attempting to avoid a third consecutive defeat in Ulster finals, after being beaten by the Red Hands in 1996 then hammered by Armagh in 1999.
“That could be something that might play on the mind,” admits Ward, “but, as I say, history’s history. I’ve played in a lot of finals both with club and a minor final and a senior final with Down, and I tend to put those things behind me. Once they’re over, they’re over.
“People don’t really give you anything for history, it’s talk after that. We’re looking forward to Sunday, it’s a different set-up, a different team.
“We know we have a big task at hand, Tyrone are a very good side, but it’s still all about 15 men against 15 – and it will all come down to the wire.”
That was not the case in the 1999 final, Armagh triumphing by 11 points to crush Down hopes, raised after the semi-final comeback victory over Tyrone.
“Yeah, obviously that final was a bit of an anti-climax the way things happened that day,” acknowledges big Sean. “You don’t like looking back on it....But I wouldn’t be using it as a stick to beat myself with, it’s a totally different team.
“When you go into finals, you go in to win. It’s something that you’d like to rectify, you don’t want the memory of losing two finals, but by the same token you take each game differently.”
The 1999 final holds especially unhappy memories for Ward, sent off late on after receiving a second yellow card.
Yet he feels he’s adapted to his new role as skipper: “Being captain you take on an added responsibility.
“I knew in the past I was courting controversy on a number of occasions, but I’ve taken a long, hard look at my game and the reasons why.
“Probably, in fairness, I haven’t given myself 100 per cent of a chance, I mightn’t have been 100 per cent fit, either mentally or physically. That sometimes shows in a lack of mental attitude, I maybe flared up.
“This year has gone well, it’s something I’ve worked on...I seem to have learned from my mistakes...I’m enjoying my football at the minute, I’m feeling fit.”
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