Passionate Downey hoping Derry can return to the big time

TOMORROW morning Seamus Downey will drive his two eldest sons to Belfast’s Casement Park for their first taste of the championship rivalry between Derry and Tyrone.

It will be a short journey if the driver is in the mood to recount some of his experiences. The relationship between the counties was always heated but the thermometer hit new heights in the 1990s during Downey’s best years.

The 1991 meeting in Omagh, his first, bridged a gap of five years. Tyrone possessed a rump of the 1986 All-Ireland final team and some of the U21s who had put 4-16 past Kerry in the All-Ireland final shortly before but a callow Derry side edged a one-point win in what was a dour encounter.