Peter Turley says Brendan Hackett has Down believing in themselves again.

The former Westmeath senior and Kildare minor manager is a sports pyschologist by profession and was drafted in by manager Eamonn Burns after the Mourne County had gone 22 months without a win. The losing streak finally ended with a victory over Meath as Down also beat Derry and drew with Cork to retain their Allianz League Division 2 status before going on to defeatArmagh in the Ulster SFC quarter-final.

"He's been playing a big part. We had a training weekend (in Castleknock) and he was there and was a big part of that too," midfielder Turley explained to the Belfast Telegraph ahead of this weekend's provincial semi-final against Monaghan.

"Maybe that part has been missing a little while, the belief. Brendan was always telling us about the 1960s teams, pushing at us that we have a tradition of football, of going out and expressing ourselves."

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