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Armagh are favourites but we won't back Down says Mourne ace Caolan Mooney

Wednesday 17th April 2019

Armagh are favourites but we won't back Down says Mourne ace Caolan Mooney
TAKEN FROM IRISH NEWS
https://www.irishnews.com/sport/gaafootball/2019/04/17/news/armagh-are-favourites-but-we-won-t-back-down-says-mourne-ace-caolan-mooney-1599502/
 
CAOLAN Mooney accepts that Armagh will be favourites for the May 19 derby duel in Newry – but the Orchardmen were also the bookies’ tip two years ago when Down ripped up the script on their way to the Ulster final.
It was Mooney who set the tone for that victory with the first point of the game as Down came out blazing and raced into a four-point lead that proved to be the difference between the sides.
 
Since then the Mournemen have slipped into Division Three while Kieran McGeeney’s Armagh have gone the other way and they consolidated their place in the second tier this year while Paddy Tally’s men failed to clinch promotion.
“I’d imagine Armagh would be favourites,” said Mooney.
 
“We were underdogs the last time and we were playing in a division above them. Now Armagh have consolidated their position in Division Two and we’re in Division Three so they’ll be going in as favourites and rightfully so.

“Armagh are going rightly but we’re going rightly too – we just slipped up at the final hurdle in the League.”
Down’s League season ended on a sour note when losing to Louth meant they missed out on promotion on scoring difference by a single point. However, now that the dust has settled, the Mournemen can take solace from winning five games in-a-row compared to Armagh’s record of won two, drew two and lost three in the second tier.
 
“I suppose the April break came at the right time for us because not getting promoted was a bitter pill to swallow,” said Mooney.
 
“We had a meeting about it and talked it through and it wasn’t that we weren’t good enough, we were more than good enough, but we probably weren’t clinical enough and that’s what let us down in the long run.
 
“We were creating chances but we weren’t taking them and that’s what is came down to – we only needed to score one more point over the seven games and we’d have got promotion.
 
“But if you’re good enough you should put the points on the board and the rest of it will take care of itself. That’s life though, and there was a lot of new boys coming in, it was a new-look squad and there was a lot of inexperience within the squad.
 
“Now those boys have games under their belts and there were experienced boys who didn’t get as much game-time as they’d have liked but if they work hard in training they’ll be rewarded and that’s the way it has been all season.
“We have five weeks to the Armagh game to get everybody fit and firing for the local derby which, in itself, should have boys excited.”
 
Whatever the bookies say, both sides will be highly motivated for the Ulster Championship tussle and if Down get off to another flier they will be hard to reel in on home soil.
 
“If you go into a game not believing that you can win you’re setting yourself up for a hard day,” said Mooney.
“If you go in confident then you’re going to play with belief and I think all the boys will be the same - you believe you can win until the final whistle goes and you’re beat.

“We’ve had two Championship games in Pairc Esler in the past two years and we’ve got two wins so I suppose home advantage could play a part. It’s not going to be easy and we all know that and we’re preparing as much as we can towards that.”