'I was roaring at them' - Laverty revels in famous Down win

For Down boss Conor Laverty, the euphoria of Sunday's stunning 3-21 to 1-21 Ulster Championship quarter-final win over back-to-back champions Donegal was made even sweeter by the heartache endured along the way.

Since being appointed in 2022, Laverty has experienced his fair share of highs and lows in charge of his native county.

He still remembers what he regards the "worst bus journey of my life" when his team's transport struggled to find the way home after a 10-point defeat by Armagh in the Ulster semi-final at a rain-lashed Clones in 2023.

More recently, he struggled to shake the strange feeling of dejection that washed over him after his side's sub-par second-half performance in the Division Three final against Wexford (which they went on to win in extra-time).

Laverty was determined to ensure Down's trip to Letterkenny to take on a heavily fancied Donegal outfit who thrashed Kerry in the Division One decider ended with a different feeling.

"The big challenge to the players was that we felt that over this past number of years that we've been close to a marquee win against Armagh and Donegal," explained the Kilcoo club-man.

"But just in moments, even like last year, whenever we had the opportunities near the end of the game, we didn't take them, but today I felt the lads really stood up."

Toppling Donegal, of course, took meticulous preparation. Laverty had planned for the holders' influential forward Michael Langan's absence - which the Down camp got wind of during the week - and drilled his players on how to stop the Donegal attack.

"We looked at Donegal and we worked on it and we studied them in great detail, particularly their forward play," explained Laverty.

"But we concentrated on ourselves an awful lot. I think we approached this game in a different manner than we approached last year and how we approached Armagh in the previous campaign, albeit it's a different game now.

"We probably felt last year we came with a more frustration game to Donegal and trying to bring them down the straight. But the plan today was to get up and to get at it nice and early and really test them and express ourselves. The word we've used all week is belief."

To steel his players for a top-level championship test, Laverty took them as far as Killarney for a challenge game against Kerry.

As Laverty explained, the Kingdom "don't play too many challenge matches", but when the opportunity arose, he was keen to thrust his players into a tussle with a championship juggernaut.

"It worked for the [Down under] 20s in my first year. We played Kerry, we played Dublin, we played the best teams in the country," he said.

"If we're going to play Donegal today, and I can say to these lads, after 35 or odd minutes in a game, that we're doing and executing things that we want to do.

"I understand people want to say Donegal and Kerry played different kind of styles, but for pressure on kick-outs and for zonal presses on kick-outs, it was a great workout."

Written off in many quarters, Down needn't have looked far for motivation, but Laverty also revealed he saved a graphic of the Ulster Championship draw that had Donegal facing either Tyrone or Armagh in the semi-finals as his phone screensaver as a reminder of how his team had been overlooked.

"Three weeks, and I've looked at it every day," he said, adding that he showed it to his players on Thursday.

The voyage into the heart of the Kingdom seemingly did the trick as Down were ravenous from first minute to last. On the ball, they showed courage and confidence when they drove at the heart of Donegal. Off it, they ran themselves into the ground and forced several turnovers to help keep momentum on their side.

Led by their outstanding captain Odhran Murdock - labelled "unplayable" by McGuinness - those in red and black stood up to the challenge and sensed a famous upset on the cards.

Pat Havern was a towering figure up front, Miceal Rooney scored two goals and Caolan Mooney rolled back the years in his first appearance since reversing his retirement. Mooney was not named in the original 26-man matchday panel but was installed at right wing-back prior to throw-in.

"To be fair, we were trying to keep that under as much wraps as possible," Laverty said on Mooney's inclusion.

"I just said in training two weeks ago that if boys are playing well, that your eyes don't lie. I said to the lads, 'who's playing well at the minute? Who's the standout player in training?'

"We played two challenge games and Moons was brilliant in them. And it was just a question whether to go with him and Liam (Kerr) from the start and put all your eggs in the basket. We probably felt that Moons' experience and the way he was going, the way his body was, I thought he was exceptional."

Down led 0-11 to 1-7 at half-time, with Caolan McGonagle's goal keeping Donegal in the fight.

"I was roaring at them," Laverty said when asked about his message at the break.

"I stood outside and I was roaring at them in their faces to believe."

They listened.

Down's reward is a semi-final meeting with Armagh, with both counties chasing a long overdue Ulster title. Armagh haven't won one since 2008, while Down's last came in 1994 (which preceded the last of the county's five All-Ireland titles).

Victory over the Orchardmen would guarantee Sam Maguire football this summer - and Laverty is excited about the road ahead after injecting fresh belief into the Down cause.

"I think football is about momentum at the minute and whenever you get on that wee crest of a wave of winning, anything can happen, absolutely anything can happen.

"Armagh were really good last night in the first half [in their quarter-final win over Fermanagh] and that's another puzzle now.

"But isn't it brilliant? Isn't it great to be heading now to do recovery and get our bodies right and for us to sit now for the next, probably most of the night, and start getting stuck into Armagh, because we genuinely had full focus on Donegal."