Conor Laverty described Down’s display in Saturday’s Ulster Championship win over Antrim as “not acceptable”.
Down laboured to a dour 0-13 to 0-9 win in Pairc Esler in a bad-tempered game to progress to an Ulster semi-final against Fermanagh or Armagh.
“I feel there’s quality in Down and we were just well below our standard line there. That’s just as honest as you can call it,” said Down manager Laverty.
“I thought it was a poor standard and it’s not something that is acceptable.”
If inter-county management doesn’t work out for the Kilcoo All-Ireland club winner, then perhaps Laverty could give politics a go as he chose his words with diplomacy after a performance which clearly had disappointed him.
“Listen, if that was the level of performance… it just wasn’t the level of performance that this team aspires to get to,” he said.
“It’s not the reason why I took the job for our players, and I feel we have a talented bunch of players.
“Whenever people would have talked about the Derry and the Dublin match, it was a great game for the neutral to watch.
“I’m sure there wouldn’t have been too many neutrals impressed with that game now.
“Antrim set up with a deep block, defended narrow and we knew they were going to come with that and we put a lot of practice into how to deal with that.
“But as a group and me as manager, we have to find better ways of dealing with this.”
While Antrim boss Andy McEntee defended his players for their part in a couple of niggly incidents during the pre-match parade and at half time, Laverty was just as philosophical about it.
“Listen, it was a local derby. If I was a team coming to Newry and thought that this was a young Down team, I would have stepped it up too.
“Antrim were well within their rights to bring a wee bit of an edge to it.
“I thought at the start that this was going to leave fireworks throughout the game, but it wasn’t long before the fireworks went out of it.”
Having gained promotion from Division Three, Down’s defeat by Westmeath in the recent league final in Croke Park “hurt a lot” according to Down’s Shane Annett, “especially because of the way we played”.
“We went out today hoping to do ourselves justice but we didn’t do that,” he added, “hopefully the next day, we will”.
Semi-final will be ‘colossal battle’
In two weeks time, Down will play the winners of Sunday’s first round clash between Fermanagh and Armagh.
Laverty views that looming semi-final as “a colossal battle” and gave an honest appraisal of Down’s chances of reaching a first Ulster final since 2017.
“We know where we’re – I’m not delusional,” he said.
“I understand where this team’s at.
“This is a young team and it’s growing all the time. I want to win. We want to win games and we want to be competitive with the best teams in Ireland.
“But we know in Armagh or Fermanagh, the challenge that lies ahead.
“I feel that they’re well down the road in their development of their team and under the management teams as well. So, we’ll have get back to work, get the lads recovered and start planning for whoever comes out of Brewster.
“I would say if you’re Fermanagh or Armagh looking in, you’ll not be too worried after watching that performance, but that’s a challenge set for us now.”
