Allianz National Hurling League Division 2B: Wicklow v Down (tomorrow, Arklow, 2pm)
THE Down hurlers are nothing but gutsy. Winning the McGurk Cup at the start of the year gave them a nice morale-booster heading into their Allianz Division 2B.
Under a native management team, led by former player Marty Mallon, the squad endured a torturous, back-to-basics pre-season while the pool of players they could select from was deeper than anything former boss Mickey Johnston could boast about.
There was a degree of cautious optimism around the Ards that they could go one better than last year – reach a League final play-off and win it.
Apart from last season’s Christy Ring winners Meath, Division 2B didn’t look too daunting a prospect.
Nevertheless, they could have done without travelling to the Royal County in their opener, where they lost by soul-destroying 20 points.
The margin for error is so small in 2B that if Down still harboured ambitions of reaching a promotion play-off they can ill-afford another defeat in their remaining four fixtures against Roscommon, Mayo, Wicklow and Derry.
That’s why their gritty five-point win over Roscommon the following week was so important.
“Roscommon threw something different at us – they played with two sweepers, but I thought we responded well,” said Down attacker Eoghan Sands.
“The style with which we got the win, grinding it out, was probably the most pleasing thing.”
Sands and Danny Toner delivered eye-catching performances against the Rossies while the return of Conor Woods erased the side’s defensive insecurities.
They piled more misery on hapless Mayo last week in Castlebar and couldn’t be in better shape heading down to Division 2B leaders Wicklow tomorrow afternoon.
“We were probably that bit more clinical against Mayo than we’ve been,” added Sands.
“We took our scores and we got a couple of goals which was the difference.
“We knew Mayo were coming off the back of two losses and if we got a couple of scores at the start of the second half their heads would go down.
“So we’re looking forward to the Wicklow game on Sunday. They’re coming off a good win against Derry while they only won by a few points against Mayo.
"Going down to Wicklow is not going to be easy but we’ll travel with the same attitude as we did for the Mayo game.”
Christy Moorehouse and Andy O’Brien helped Wicklow overpower Derry at Celtic Park last weekend.
With their defence looking more solid with each passing game Down are also getting a nice spread of scores in their games with Conor O’Prey, Caolan Taggart and Conor Mageean helping out top scorer Danny Toner.
These two sides have shared some memorable battles in recent years.
Four years ago, Wicklow beat the Ardsmen in Trim to send them down to Division 2B and it has been their residence ever since.
If they are to gain promotion in 2017, Down must regard this testing encounter as a must-win tie because both sides fully expect Meath to feature in the promotion shake-up at the end of the month.
