Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A MISTAKE TO DOWNPLAY IT
Mooney: Writing us off made no sense to me
CAOLAN MOONEY was surprised Down weren’t fancied to beat Armagh on Sunday – and hailed their win as his best day in county football.
The former Collingwood AFL recruit starred as the Mourne men sealed a first Ulster Championship victory in four years. “I’d have to say it is my sweetest day in a Down jersey,” said Mooney of the 0-15 to 2-7 win. “We were going in as underdogs and I didn’t understand why, because in the last few years we went from Division One to Division Two whereas they went from Division Two to Division Three, and stayed there. “Everyone was pumping them up but we knew within ourselves that if we played well we would definitely win. “Down is a proud footballing county. We like to play good football and we got a wee bit of a chance to show that. “Most of us had never won an Ulster Championship match, so it was a long time coming.” Mooney, 24, opted out of the Down panel last spring – with the team on the brink of relegation from Division One – and missed the rest of the season, something he admits was “a rash decision”. But he is very much inside the tent this year and claimed: “The slating we got in the last few years was cruel, to an extent. “It annoys you because you’re in the paper week in, week out, for the wrong reasons. “I’m just glad to get that behind us now. We wouldn’t have been able to move on until we got a big Championship win like this.” Mourne boss Eamonn Burns played Mooney at wing-back and it worked a treat as he bombed forward to kick two points. “In the first half we gave away two slack goals but apart from that, we were in control of that game,” said Mooney. “We knew if we stuck to our game-plan, and ran from deep at speed there wasn’t too many were going to cope with that. “It worked to a large extent but we’d like to work at it more and get it fine-tuned for Monaghan or Cavan. We had four or five debutants and this will give them the feel of what Championship football is all about it. “It gives us a bit of momentum.”