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This Sunday 14 July, Down senior ladies footballers will return to St. Tiarnach's Park in Clones to take on old foes, Tyrone, in the semi final of the TG4 All Ireland Intermediate Football Championship. All roads will lead south for the many Down supporters who have followed their team on what has been a successful journey thus far for the Mourne women.
The Down journey really took off after the county's 1-07 to 0-08 win over Limerick at Croke Park last August in the All Ireland Junior final, with a second half goal from Orla Swail proving to be the difference between the two sides that day in the capital. Memories from the last visit to Croke Park on finals day (2014) came flooding back when Mark Copeland's Down side beat Fermanagh to lift the Intermediate title with goals coming from Kyla Trainor (2) Lauren Cunningham, Sinead McNamee, Aileen Pyres and Lisa Morgan.
Eleven months on from last August and the Mourne County, with Caoibhe Sloan Sharkey, Peter Lynch and Mark Poland at the helm, Down find themselves one step away from another shot at the Mary Quinn cup. The Down camp have wintered well, and have now won 10 consecutive games since January.
The Mourne girls have also picked up an Ulster Intermediate title beating Monaghan by a single point back in May. Just a month later Down met Monaghan again, this time in the All Ireland Intermediate quarter final and beat the Farney by 3 points at Pairc Esler in Newry. On Sunday it's all to play for and the Mourne supporters will descend on Clones to watch their girls battle it out against Division 2 side, Tyrone, who themselves have only lost one game since the start of the year.
