SLIGO carry a scoring threat that Down won’t take lightly says coach Mickey Donnelly, as the Mourne county prepare for a winner-takes-all clash with Tony McEntee’s side in Sunday’s Tailteann Cup semi-final.
In their four Tailteann Cup games to this point, Sligo have kicked an eye-catching 7-83 and the wide-open spaces of Croke Park could suit an impressive forward line that has been hitting the target at will.
Donnelly believes that Down will have to keep an eye on Sligo’s scoring return if they are to be in with a chance of reaching the decider for the second successive season, having lost out to Meath last year.
Conor Laverty’s charges comfortably beat Sligo earlier in the season on the way to gaining promotion to Division Two, but Donnelly is expecting a huge test from the Connacht men.
“When you look across the four teams that are left, Sligo are right up there in terms of personnel,” said Donnelly.
“Their forward line is really frightening in terms of (Sean) Carrabine, (Niall) Murphy, (Alan) McLaughlin and Paddy O’Connor playing closer to goal now.
“They also have (Darragh) Cummins and (Nathan) Mullen coming from half-back, they get scores from a lot of areas and they’re very athletic. I have no doubt that Tony McEntee will have Sligo primed and ready for a big performance on Sunday.
“We’re under no illusions, it is a mammoth tussle because of the Sligo forwards. We can all have defenders, and you can set up defensive patterns and get bodies back and be hard to penetrate, but you need boys who have ice in their veins to kick the ball over the bar and they have loads of them.
“They probably have five forwards that need tagged, which is almost unheard of at this level of competition.”
Down have plenty of scoring potential themselves and have demonstrated that right throughout the competition, racking up 5-84 on their way to reaching the final four.
Not only that, but they now have a squad depth that is surely the envy of every team competing at this level, with the likes of Liam Kerr, Ceilum Doherty and Danny Magill all coming off the bench in last week’s win over Wicklow.
The way the game is played now, having strong options to come into a game and finish things off is just as important as selecting the starting 15 says Donnelly.
“They all came on and made a big impact,” added Donnelly of the subs used the last day out.
“They’re all excellent players in their own right and the game, and in fact the sport is changing, where teams need an impact, it is about the team that finishes the game.
“Think back to Tyrone in 2008, the All-Ireland final, Kevin Hughes came on and changed the game in the middle of the field, he set up the goal at the very start of the second half. The game is more about the team that finishes than the team that starts.
“Ultimately, it’s the men that finish the game that have the biggest impact to a certain extent, because there’s a lot of shadow boxing in games now for a certain period of time.
“Then teams seem to be hoping to bring lads on to finish the match. I suppose that’s maybe the way it worked out for us last weekend, because for the first 40 or 45 minutes, it was a bit of an arm-wrestle, it was very tight, and it was very attritional.”