ALTHOUGH some scars have been soothed, Down must ready themselves quickly for battle again, against their oldest rivals, Armagh, in Sunday's second Ulster SFC semi-final.
The Mournemen's assistant manager Marty Clarke admitted that deep hurt had lingered from the last time his county hosted Donegal in Newry, making Sunday's quarter-final victory all the more enjoyable:
"Yeah look, it is, it absolutely is, and we're fully aware of what happened here two years ago when Donegal won 2-25 to 1-12 and a lot of our players have scars from that game. It was referenced a small bit in the lead-up to the game but it certainly wasn't something we got into in too much depth.
"So it was important for the group to be able to lift themselves and to put on a performance. Donegal have had their struggles this season but have such brilliant footballers and they're a proud county so it was important in that respect."
The next challenge is even tougher, against an Armagh side that has already comfortably seen off Antrim and Cavan, two other teams who competed in Division Three earlier this year, as Down did.
Yet Down's previous win of note in Ulster in recent years – aside from victories over Antrim and Fermanagh – came against the Orchard County, in the 2017 quarter-final en route to that year's final.
The Mournemen also only lost to Armagh after extra time in 2019, 2-17 to 3-13 in Pairc Esler, so they will travel with no fear to Clones on Sunday.
However, Clarke pointed out that the men in orange are still at a higher level than the red and blacks, despite Armagh's relegation from Division One:
"Yeah look, we know Armagh have pushed themselves into the All-Ireland contention, you know it's an unbelievable management team with Kieran McGeeney, Ciaran McKeever, and Kieran Donaghy.
"They have players who have just love their jersey and exceptional footballers as well, so we understand that after…we kind of enjoy this part of football which is getting the win and you have to let your players enjoy it, we'll be flicking straight into Armagh mode and trying to break down how we can get at them and where maybe their greatest strengths lie."
Both sides will have to do so rapidly, but although it is a quick turnaround there's also not a lot of time to get distracted:
"Yeah it's very novel. Generally you're looking at three weeks minimum and I know this is the first year really it's been so condensed.
"So now it's over to Jonny Davis, who's our S & C [strength and conditioning coach] to get the players' bodies right and then [for us] to plan as I said how we're going to go about this game next week because it is going to be an extremely big game."
Clarke acknowledged that there had been pros and cons to Down's post-League schedule, and had high praise for Carryduff's Daniel Guinness, who made his first inter-county appearance in a year:
"We were fortunate to have our break before the Donegal game, which we kind of used quite well to get the likes of Dan Guinness and Shane Annett up to speed and you know we've planned really hard.
"Look, we are blessed to have a lot of that kind of quality coming in: [Guinness] and Shane Annett haven't played a lot of league football but they've trained quite hard, Daniel in particular.
"We know the importance he brings to the group, his training standards are incredible really, as good as anything I've seen in the professional sphere that I was involved in, and he was able to see the game out right to the end, probably against all medical advice, but it's just the sort of guy he is and we're really pleased to have him now back fully fit."
