Ulster SFCBenny Coulter talks to Gavin Cummiskey about taking the qualifier route

For some time now Down have been the bridesmaids of Ulster football. Despite boasting one of the most natural players in the game in Benny Coulter - who is equally adept at International Rules - and a lineage of underage talent that is the envy of all, they are close to being reduced to trainbearer status.

Down were the first Ulster county to create a lasting national legacy with the provincial three-in-a-row side of 1959 to 1961 that evolved into two-time All-Ireland winners in the 1960s. They rose again in the northern-dominated early 1990s to regain Sam Maguire in 1991 and 1994.

They had been favoured to come again in 2006, at least in Ulster, but considering a tremendous minor team have only just graduated, it all looks a little premature.

Defeat to Donegal in the Ulster quarter-finals heaped enormous pressure on manager Paddy O'Rourke, many supporters forgetting his service rendered as captain in 1991.

Four seasons ago O'Rourke came in and promptly guided Down to an Ulster final, which ended in defeat to the eventual All-Ireland champions, Tyrone. The following two campaigns are viewed as write-offs.

O'Rourke received severe criticism for the decision to call ashore his left-footed free-taker Liam Doyle entering injury-time against Donegal. Lo and behold, a challenging free was awarded on the right seconds later. Daniel Hughes was well wide and Donegal progressed by a single point.

They seek redemption with a journey to Markievicz Park tomorrow, where an unpredictable Sligo lie in wait.

"The fans have come out and criticised Paddy even before this year started," protested Coulter. "He made one wrong decision and again they are jumping on his back. I think he has come in for a lot of unfair criticism in his last four years. I think he deserves more respect than that."

It was overlooked that O'Rourke replaced Doyle with the underage sensation James Colgan. All dissent could have washed away had the ball broken differently in the closing stages.

Coulter believes judgment should be withheld for now. "I think Donegal won it. They won 70 percent of the breaking ball around the middle of the field so obviously they deserved to win the game. We're going to have to sort that out for Sligo.

"I wasn't surprised because we have played Donegal maybe three or four times in the last five or six years and they are very hard to play against. We knew we were coming into a hard came.

"We're in the qualifiers now so it's going to be a hard road to travel but there is a lot of expectations, as we failed to deliver against Donegal. If we don't beat Sligo there will be big, big changes in Down football."

It's an obvious point, that players should take responsibility for their own actions, but it is still refreshing to hear Coulter go on the record with such an assertion.

"In his first year Paddy got us to an Ulster final and has failed to deliver in the last two years, but at the end of the day the buck stops with the players. We are on the pitch and it is us who haven't delivered.

"We had a good enough league campaign and training was going well. When we got over Cavan we thought if we got over Donegal then we could reach an Ulster final but it wasn't to be."

And yet, Coulter is brimming with confidence and simply cannot envisage the months of hard graft ending on a June weekend in Yeats Country.

"I saw them play against Galway on TV and they ran them very close. We're going down to Sligo and it will be a very hard game, but I'm pretty confident we'll beat them."