Last year's 19 point defeat at the hands of Monaghan is water under the bridge as far as Kevin McKernan is concerned.

McKernan and his Down team-mates will renew acquaintances with the Farney County in the Athletic Grounds this evening and he insists that the memory of the county's biggest ever championship defeat won't be weighing heavily on their minds.

"You can talk all day about last year but we have lost three or four players from the team that started that day and we have filtered new fellas in," he pointed out to The Irish Independent.

"The likes of Caolan Mooney, Darragh O'Hanlon are another year on in Championship football. Last year, we were throwing four or five rookies in against Monaghan and we threw two or three in against Armagh but that will stand to them."

After their morale boosting last eight victory over Armagh, McKernan harbours high ambitions for this summer.

"Only one team wins the All-Ireland, only one team gets to win Ulster.

"We are hoping, year after year, that we can pick a pocket somewhere along the line and I feel honestly that we can be a top eight team in the next year or two. That is our target this year.

"We are facing a Division 1 team now and they are going to have to be pick-pocketed now. We will be underdogs but hopefully we will be ready to go."

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