Laverty: Lack of performance the hardest thing to take

FOUND LACKING: Down manager Conor Laverty before the Tailteann Cup Final match between Down and Meath at Croke Park in Dublin. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Conor Laverty reckons it'll take a while before he can view Down's season for the success it was.

The Down manager expected his team to win the Tailteann Cup final and reported a 'gutted' dressing room while, for him personally, there'll be a tough period of 'living off moments in your head that you can remember...living off flashbacks and highlighting the mistakes and seeing those things repeatedly in your head'.

Eventually, the realisation will dawn that after the county's dramatic failures in 2022 - Down didn't win a single game all year - pushing hard for promotion in Division 3 and reaching the Tailteann Cup final was a strong first step under the new management who have pulled their playing group back tight together again.

But for now, it's regrets and probably a few sleepless nights.

"Probably the hardest thing to take is whenever you don't perform and you're beaten," said Laverty. "If you're beaten but you've performed to the best of your ability, you can accept it that wee bit better."

Goals had become Down's calling card. They scored at least one in all of their league games and in all of their Tailteann Cup games. Before Saturday, Armagh, in the Ulster SFC, was the only team to prevent them from recording a three-pointer. In the Tailteann Cup semi-final win over Laois, Down scored eight of them. 

So Meath's clean sheet went a long way to winning the game for them.

"After the National League and the Leinster championship, Meath seemed to set up a wee bit more defensively," said Laverty of Meath's impassable defence. "They seemed to free up Donal Keogan as their sweeper against us and at all costs they were probably looking to deny us goals. They were looking to drop off and to make sure that the area from the 'D' to the 14-yard box was always covered. I still thought we got through at times but we probably just didn't have the killer instinct in the final third."

Down registered 17 wides when they lost narrowly to Meath in their final group game. On Saturday, they blasted 10 more and wasted a number of decent goal opportunities. As much as Meath's defence was on song, Down's forward unit also misfired badly.

"Probably just that composure in the final third let us down, it's something we had worked hard on in the games since playing them at Parnell Park," said Laverty. "We had seen really good improvement but look, yeah, probably just that composure in the final third was what let us down.

"But it's a very young team. They're only starting this journey with us as a management team. This competition has been brilliant and a lot of boys have got a lot of game time. They've got two games in Croke Park as well and that will stand to them experience-wise."