By 1994, the gloss had worn off Down’s 1991 All-Ireland success. It had been an extraordinary feat, as genuine a case of a team coming from nowhere to take the title as you could imagine.
The 1991 win over Meath was the first All-Ireland in 23 years that hadn’t gone to Munster or Leinster.
There was no slow descent either. A year later, league winners Derry ended their reign and the following May, walloped them in Newry by 11 points on the way to winning the 1993 All-Ireland.
“Ulster was a two-year cycle so we all knew that having lost by 11 in 1993, we would have to go to Derry the following year and beat the All-Ireland champions,” remembers manager Peter McGrath. “Very few people gave us a chance.”
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James McCartan wasn’t one of the veterans of the team but he was established and had won an All-Star in his first year, 1990. He remembers the stakes being high this week 30 years ago.
“It would have been career ending, maybe not for me. I was only 23 but it felt like a last-chance saloon.”
There were those new to the panel, who weren’t quite as agitated by facing the All-Ireland champions. Ciarán McCabe was on the bench that day.
“Down had lost to Derry twice but I’d no baggage. It wasn’t hanging over my head.”
In the modern context, it might be useful to point out that in 1994, all of the championships was a knockout stage. One defeat and the summer was over.
“There were no qualifiers,” says McGrath, “no group stages. You walked into Celtic Park for your first championship match and Derry walked in as All-Ireland champions but they walked out with nothing.”
Neither were there the opportunities offered by the qualifiers to teams who had lost in their province but McCartan is unconvinced.
“People say to me how many All-Irelands would Down have won if there had been qualifiers in the ‘90s? And I say, none, maybe!”
Down had prepared for the match by taking what was at the time an unusual weekend way. There was a connection with the De La Salle order, Ciarán McCabe explains.
“I went to Red High (St Patrick’s) in Downpatrick. Pat O’Hare (the late Down trainer) was a teacher there. We used to go on retreats up in Waterfoot. It was a big monastery-type place with football pitches nearby.”
McGrath remembers being in a really positive mood on the way to Celtic Park.
“On the road to Derry that day – and I don’t say this with hindsight; I was very clear in my mind – I was highly confident we were going to win.”
The match started in a blur of movement with an emphasis on moving the ball. To the modern eye, it looks frantic and unstructured but it is also exciting to see the ball moved forward as quickly as possible and the contests between attackers and defenders.
“It was a tit-for-tat game and we were leading by two at half-time (0-10 to 0-8),” says McGrath. “People say it was a classic and I believe it was. Derry’s goal came midway through the first half. Fergal McCusker got in a shot that deflected in the air and somehow ended up in the net.”
What happened next was acknowledged as a key influence on the outcome. With the score at 0-12 to 1-11, the next score would be crucial. It starts with Kane getting down on a ball on the endline before belting it forward to Gregory McCartan.
He drives a long kick into the Derry 45 where his namesake James takes it on the right side, solos while being buffeted by Karl Diamond and then defies the close attentions of Kieran McKeever before getting off a right-footed kick.
“If this goes over the bar, Celtic Park will erupt,” says commentator Jimmy Smyth.
“They were two ahead and the next score was critical for us,” according to McGrath. “James McCartan went on a solo run and he was being hustled and harassed before getting off a kick which went over. It was like oxygen for us and thereafter it was once more, anyone’s game.”
McCartan says it was all in a day’s work “It was what I was basically all about in my head. Getting the ball, driving at the defender and maybe taking more steps than I was supposed to.”
The match returned to its uneasy equilibrium. With 10 minutes to go, McCabe entered the fray and within four minutes had struck the vital blow.
“You’re coming in, hoping to get on the end of something. I’ll be honest, there weren’t really any set moves back in those days. Greg had the ball and kicked it over my head so I just turned and followed it in, essentially as back up. Mickey got it and just slipped it to me and I was straight through at full tilt. It was your perfect GAA move.
“It’s all instinct from there. That was one thing I could do, finish.”
The contest itself went down as one of that slim volume that gets mentioned in every conversation about best football matches ever played
There were consequences for both teams. The win provided lift-off for Down, who went on to win Ulster – the last time they did – and the All-Ireland. Under McCartan’s management 16 years later, the county reached its most recent final, losing narrowly to Cork.
Derry used the defeat to settle scores with manager Eamonn Coleman, who was sacked, triggering a player revolt but he never returned.
The contest itself went down as one of that slim volume that gets mentioned in every conversation about best football matches ever played although McCartan acknowledges it can get lost in translation for younger generations.
“During Covid when all the old matches were on the television, a lot of the younger people who watched the ‘94 game couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. All they could see was these boys kicking as far as they could and then a fight ensued over who was going to win the ball.
“They felt there was no tactics. Young ones around me were going ‘what is this we’re watching? It’s not football. Giving the ball away. I still like to think it’s a classic! But generations differ.”
