James McCartan is expecting Laois to get plenty of men behind the ball on Sunday.

McCartan's Down have to defeat the O'Moore men in Portlaoise this weekend and hope for a highly-unlikely sequence of results elsewhere to earn promotion - and their task won't be made any easier by the fact that their opponents are themselves involved in a relegation battle.

"Meath got 14 men behind the ball at times and hit us on the break last Saturday. We can expect that kind of stoic defence against Laois as they will be very keen to avoid relegation," McCartan told The Belfast Telegraph.

"I said earlier in the competition that on any given day any side is capable of beating any other side in Division Two."

Mourne County PRO has all but given up the ghost: "The figures are not on our side," he states. It will take something miraculous to happen to open the promotion door again for us, but we live in hope. The players are very determined to try and make up for the recent lapses." Tweet

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