Tough task on top of the Mourne

IT may not be all that obvious as he patrols the sideline in his tracksuit tomorrow but throw a suit and tie on Ross Carr and the guy bears an uncanny resemblance to Martin O’Neill.

The glasses add to the doppelganger affect, as do the hushed, considered tones which both Ulster men use to convey their thoughts. Neither man do so for effect. Both are noted deep thinkers about their passions.

The two could probably spend hours comparing notes and not just because O’Neill once played underage Gaelic football for Kilrea and Derry before turning his attention to football of the association variety across the Irish Sea.

O’Neill’s latest staging post in a long and fruitful career is in Birmingham where he is attempting to reclaim former glories with an Aston Villa side that is one of England’s most storied clubs, having once won the European Cup.

Carr and Down can empathise with that. Bracketed along with Cavan as one of Ulster’s aristocrats, the county has won five All-Ireland senior titles but their last achievement of any significance was 15 years ago.

The reality is that Down expects. Five years without even an Ulster final appearance simply doesn’t wash but Carr laughs off talk of pressure ahead of tomorrow’s championship opener against Fermanagh.

“The association is 125 years old and we have had five good years in it,” he reasons quietly. “That is some tradition. It is something that is great to be a part of when you look back on it, I won’t tell you any lies, but it has nothing to do with Sunday.

“Over the last four or five years Fermanagh have had a much better championship record than Down so, whether we are good enough to win on Sunday, only Sunday can tell us.

“The expectancy of supporters is an annual thing, which I understand. What I don’t understand sometimes are their arguments, but I understand their frustration at seeing Down beat Tyrone who went on to win the All-Ireland (last year). They automatically think that they beat the All-Ireland champions. They didn’t. They beat Tyrone in June not the third week in September.”

This is as big a year for Carr as it is for Down. Appointed after the 2006 championship, this is the third of his three-year term in charge and progress has been relative rather than rapid.

Relegation from Division 1B to Three in his first year was an unfortunate start (thanks to the NFL’s restructuring) but the fact that it took the side two years to find their way back up the ladder to the second tier told its own tale.

Carr didn’t settle for cosmetic changes when he took charge. A clutch of new faces was introduced and work on a new style of play bore some fruit last year with that aforementioned defeat of Tyrone after a replay in Ulster.

They juggled the good with the bad for the remainder of the campaign with losses to Armagh and Wexford bookending qualifier victories over Laois and Offaly. The brickwork has continued this spring.

Promotion to Division Two was secured at the second time of asking. The standard of opposition may be open to question but the amount of games Down won since that defeat of Tyrone may not be a coincidence.

“The Tyrone win will have no bearing whatsoever on this summer but it has given our fellas a belief and confidence to know that they can produce performances at the highest level. Our problem is doing it consistently.

“What players, management and supporters are all trying to figure out is how can we produce a performance to beat Tyrone over two and a half games and then get beaten by seven or eight points by Wexford?

“It is the same thing this year in the league. How can we perform well in two or three leagues games and yet be beaten away to Limerick and at home against Cavan? We were in Division Three because that’s where we deserved to be. We are in Division Two now because that is where we deserve to be. Our job is to become more consistent and, if we can do that, then this bunch of players do have the ability to play at the end of the summer.”

The draw in Ulster offers further incentive. With Armagh, Tyrone, Monaghan and Derry all boxed into the far side, teams like Down and Fermanagh have genuine aspirations of making the final. After that, who knows? Those of a superstitious bent will note that Down’s season in Division Three – promotion followed by defeat in the final – has followed an identical trajectory to Fermanagh’s last year and they took Armagh to a replay in the Ulster final.

Carr doesn’t come across as someone who would put much store in that but he does accept that the habit of winning games should help stoke the fires for a concerted run at ending the county’s barren stretch.

“There are two sets of teams. There are teams that start out at the start of the year who set their sights on the third Sunday of September and who, if they pick up some provincial silverware along the way, then they have a decent night in July.

“Then there are a set of teams, and we are one, who set their sights on provincial success because, if we don’t have the confidence of winning behind us, you’ve no hope, desire or inclination to go to Croke Park.

“For us to have a good provincial campaign we need to have a good league behind us and the league campaign that we had has been an improvement on last year. The last game against Tipperary was disappointing but I was happy with the campaign. This year we lost two and we kicked ourselves out of the two that we lost. I really believe that progress has been made and that we are a better position this year than last year.”