It was a real baptism of fire for new Down manager Eamonn Burns against Donegal on Saturday night, and he admitted as much afterwards.

"It was a difficult night for us, back in Division 1 after a couple of years," he told the Irish News after the Mourne County's crushing 0-7 to 3-15 loss in Newry.

"Donegal are very strong. We throught up to half-time we were well in the game. But the two goals after half-time sort of put it beyond our reach. They had seven frees in the first half they scored from. We got the penalty and missed it and if we had got that we might have had a better foothold in the game.

"To be fair to the boys, they scored straight away afterwards, but the game sort of eased away from us after half-time.

"That's the challenge for the fellas and they are looking forward to it. They are a wee bit annoyed with how they played and how the result went, but they will gather themselves up on Tuesday night and we will have a look at the DVD and set ourselves up for a go at Monaghan.

"That's not the Down mentality. The Down mentality is to face the challenge and we will do that. We will do that all year. But we know it is going to be tough."

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