Donegal boss Jim McGuinness and Down's Conor Laverty will lock horns later this month
7 Donegal now need to get up for Down
With all the hype after Sunday’s emphatic win over Kerry, many will view Donegal’s Ulster opener with Down in Letterkenny as a mere formality. The Mourne men had been in impressive form in Division 3 but their laboured final win over Wexford has many now marking them down as fodder for rampaging Donegal in O’Donnell Park. But Conor Laverty’s side put it up to Donegal last season in Ulster, as did Monaghan, so it’s a provincial battle that continues to veer from conventional wisdom when it comes to all those unique rivalries. “I don’t think that performance would do against Donegal now,” said the Kilcoo man on his side’s 0-21 to 0-18 extra-time win over Wexford. “I don’t think it would take a rocket scientist to come up with that answer. “Going to Letterkenny, I don’t think there’d be anybody in the country that’ll be expecting a Down win. “So whenever you’re in that position, you can go there, really play with freedom and have a real go at it.”

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