Ryan Boyle has had to bide his time before getting the nod at inter-county level, but despite featuring consistently in Down manager James McCartan's plans this year, the Warrenpoint man is modest about his continued involvement. Kenny Archer reports... BEFORE the Down team was named, Ryan Boyle exhibited genuine modesty about the marking job he might be handed against Donegal tomorrow. "I'll just have to wait and see, I don't whether I'll be playing yet," said the Warrenpoint man. His uncertainty could be understood, as this is first senior inter-county season. However, given that he's one of only two ever-presents for the Mournemen this year - along with the versatile Kevin McKernan - he shouldn't have been in any doubt that manager James McCartan would select him in an unchanged starting side from the quarter-final against Derry. Perhaps criticism at his work affected him? The 23-year-old acknowledges he struggled initially on his Ulster SFC debut against Derry. Teaching in St Paul's, Bessbrook, alongside former Armagh stars Jarlath Burns and John Rafferty, there's plenty of GAA talk: "Jarlath Burns, John Raff, Bill Geoghegan, there are a lot of men who know what they're talking about and I've been talking to plenty of them." Yet they weren't putting him down. "They're good craic and they're very helpful too," he says, before adding: "I get feedback from everybody. All the students were able to highlight the chances that I missed. The kids are giving me the abuse." That's said with a laugh, though, because Boyle ended up having a good debut, albeit after that difficult beginning: "Going into it, I was nervous. I probably didn't enjoy the first half that much, I was taken to nearly every corner of the pitch by Enda Lynn. "But I suppose when the game got stretched out, Enda got a wee bit tired and that allowed me to get into the game a wee bit better. Generally I enjoyed it, especially when you win, I was happy enough. "I knew what I was up against, that he was very mobile, but I also knew that he wouldn't be able to keep up that pace and constant running into the second half. I was really trying to bide my time, nullify his effect in the first half. He got on the ball plenty." Although named at number four, Boyle played in the half-back line, as he does for his club, and he was able to show his ability for the county too: "The training we've done, our fitness levels paid off, I was able to get on top of him and squash him out. I like to go forward, to put the forward on the back foot so they don't put me on the back foot too much." Much has been made of Down conceding 1-15 against Derry, but Dan McCartan and Benny McArdle were the only two defenders who started last year's Ulster final. Boyle was joined by another debutant, Keith Quinn, and Declan Rooney and Peter Turley, with stalwarts like Dan Gordon and Conor Garvey ruled out by injuries. Again, Boyle is modest about his inclusion, commenting: "With the injuries, James [McCartan] has had to try a few new people, and that's probably why I got my chance." Yet he does acknowledge: "Everyone that has come in has done quite well, so that's a bonus for Down." Donegal will be their toughest examination, he's well aware, even though he performed well personally when the two teams met in this year's National League Division One: "I played corner-back that night, marked Patrick McBrearty. "He didn't score that night but, in saying that, they were just back from a holiday. I don't know how fit he was or how motivated he was to play." There's that modesty again: that match was in round two, with Donegal having played Kildare in Croke Park after returning from Dubai. However, Boyle is right to be wary of McBrearty and his forward colleagues Michael Murphy and Colm McFadden after they helped dispose of Tyrone by 2-10 to 0-10 in their quarter-final: "He had a great game the last day, all three of them are probably playing the best football I've seen them play. All three of them will be different animals this time round. It's Championship football, and Ulster semi-final, so it'll be all guns blazing." Boyle watched last year's Ulster final on TV, recalling that Donegal pulling clear in the final third to win by 11 points: "Down sort of matched them for a long time, but I think Donegal's fitness proved the difference in the end." Yet trained by Professor Niall Moyna of DCU this season, Down themselves finished strongly against Derry. "It's a lot of hard work, a lot of moving and running, breaking out at pace, that's what he's worked on." Boyle admits the squad has taken confidence from that victory at Celtic Park: "Definitely, especially at half-time I don't think anybody would have really given us a chance to come back. "We took a lot of scores from distance, which is encouraging - we might have to do that against Donegal. "But Donegal are a different animal, they're the hot favourites. "We'll take it as it comes, see how we go. "We've worked hard in training, we're focussed, and we're looking forward to it. We'll just wait and see." Down will travel to Breffni Park tomorrow more in hope than expectation, but winning isn't beyond them: "A lot of people didn't expect us to get past Derry, so there's more hope than anything in the county that we can make a good game of it; we want to go out and perform." That may be false modesty but certainly if Down win this one, Mr Boyle won't worry about any comments from the kids.