Laverty happy with performance levels in spells following league opening win in Wicklow

One promising sign was that Down's scoring percentage was extremely high throughout and they only kicked two wides in the first half, while converting 10 points.

“We were a wee bit more clinical,” Laverty told the Newry Reporter after the game.

“ Probably in spells today we were happy with our performance, other spells we still have a lot of work to do. But coming away to Aughrim in the first game was always going to be difficult, so we're happy with the result and looking forward to next week now.”

With Armagh's Oisin McConville managing Wicklow, and former Down player Mark Doran part of his management team, Down assistant manager Mickey Donnelly had said before the game that of all the teams in Division 3, they would have the most insight into what way the Mournemen would play and the worry was how they planned to counteract that. But Laverty doesn't believe things like that matter much in this day and age.

“Nowadays everybody is able to study everyone with the video footage you can get your hands on, so there's very few secrets out there now. It's just about performing on the day.”

Wicklow had three goal chances in the first half and while Down defended all three successfully, the fact that they broke through is something to look at this week as well.

“Probably their goal chances came from our own mistakes, so that's something we'll look at closely and we'll have to rectify that.”

There's no doubt however that Down were the better side and their superior fitness levels and speed around the pitch was evident.

“The boys have worked very hard over this past number of weeks, so it's now just to get back into competitive football and it's good to get a win in the first game.”