By Niall Gartland

DOWN boss Conor Laverty recognises that it was crucial they successfully put a halt to their losing streak in finals as he reflected on Saturday’s Tailteann Cup final triumph over Laois.

All the positive psychology in the world couldn’t gloss over the fact that they’d endured a miserable record in finals not just in recent years but in recent decades, so there was no denying that there was pressure on the players heading into Saturday’s final at Croke Park.

But they came good on the day to make amends for last year’s defeat to Meath, and Laverty says it didn’t matter that it wasn’t a first-class performance from the success starved Mournemen.

Laverty commented: “When you have a record of losing in finals, no matter what the manager says, or what the players say among themselves, it brings a certain amount of external pressure.

“History is its own pressure and when you’re on that losing train, it’s very hard to get off it and it probably gathers momentum as well.

“I don’t think it was our prettiest performance of the year, and it certainly wasn’t our best, but I’d have taken any sort of win and I told the boys that during the week.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be open football, especially given what happened against Laois last year, we knew they’d defend with a deep block, but I’m very, very proud of the way the lads performed.”

So Down have the cup and a team holiday to look forward to, but perhaps most happily of all they have guaranteed themselves a spot in the All-Ireland SFC series in 2025.

“That was the objective at the start of the competition, but we can’t say it was the objective at the start of the year because we had real ambitions of getting to an Ulster final and competing in the All-Ireland this year.

“After the Armagh game we refocused and said we were going to give this competition everything we had. Going into Division Two next year, we didn’t want to be looking over our shoulder at provincial draws, seeing how they worked out and not knowing if you’d be in the All-Ireland.

“So we’re over the moon, it’s a very young panel and a lot of these lads have never won silverware at senior level so it was very, very important.”