Football

Hard lessons can stand to us says Kevin McKernan

 Down have been relegated to Division Two and Kevin McKernan believes it will be just as tough as the top flight
 Down have been relegated to Division Two and Kevin McKernan believes it will be just as tough as the top flight  Down have been relegated to Division Two and Kevin McKernan believes it will be just as tough as the top flight

JUST as it was in September 2010 in Croke Park, you had Cork in all-white and Down in dazzling gold, but everything else looked very different.

The more austere surroundings of Páirc Uí Rinn matched the lower quality of football on offer on Sunday, with Cork still searching for a consistency of performance and Down… well, you can’t say Down aren’t consistent.

The long trip south marked Down’s ninth competitive loss in-a-row and their seventh consecutive defeat in seven years’ worth of encounters with the Rebels.

However, the change from Down 2010 to Down 2016 is also underlined by the fact that Kevin McKernan was the only player to start both games against Cork, with Mark Poland and Conor Maginn the other links in the chain.

“This is a much-changed Down team in five or six years,” said McKernan.

“It’s no different with Cork – men come and go – but we need a mentality in Down where everybody wants the best for this county team.

“It’s disappointing because we came down here hoping we were going to win and expecting we were going to win. Confidence was high because we had nothing to lose,” he said with a wry chuckle at how paradoxical that sounds on first hearing.

“Things were looking up and only for a little misplaced handpass here and there, we could’ve been in for more.

“We’ll lift again and these young lads are learning quickly. It’s just unfortunate that it’s to end in relegation. 

“But we’ll fight hard next week against Mayo and hopefully lead into the Championship with a bit of positivity.”

The scoring stats say they’re by a distance the most mismatched team in all four divisions this spring. Yet bouncing between Divisions One and Two is still a whole lot better in McKernan’s eyes than the situation when he started out.

“I’ve always said to the lads who came in, my first League games for Down were against Limerick, against Louth, against Clare, different teams like that. 

“Our boys are being thrown in against the best and they’re doing well. It’s just difficult.

“The lads dug deep but you’ve a couple of the guys making debuts against the likes of Cork, Dublin and Monaghan, so I think they should be cut a bit of slack and a wee bit of realism to the whole fact that it’s a harsh place to play football.”

That call for realism and unity from those outside the camp is often repeated by the Burren club-man. And despite dropping down a division, McKernan believes there’s no difference between the level of competition in the top and second tier.

“You look at Division Two this year and it’s like a mini-Ulster Championship. So for us to be in Division One and fighting hard, we’re learning a lot of lessons there. 

“If we come away with the realisation of what it takes to be at the top table and if you’re in and around Division One or Two, you’re going to be competing.

“It’s very difficult for us to play and people to look from the outside and say different things. If we really rowed in here, get young lads on board and give it a real good go, Division Two will be every bit as good as Division One.

“You look at the games, like Tyrone and Armagh, and there are big teams down there that will have big aspirations come summer too. It’s no different.”