Midfield the key as Down bid to end monopoly of ‘big two’

WE may witness the end of an era in Ulster football tomorrow and it seems fitting that Down should be the team primed to bring down the curtain.

Armagh and Tyrone’s decade-long dominance of the Anglo-Celt Cup began with the former’s defeat of the Mourne county in the 1999 provincial final in Clones and it could very well end at the hands of the same opponents, and at the same venue, tomorrow.

Ross Carr’s side have already evicted Tyrone from the province and optimism in the county is high. Joe Kernan said as much after visiting Newry, a town that hugs the two county’s mutual border. But that decider nine years ago stands as a warning to those liable to get overly-excited.