Gaelic Games: In Louth this week the pressure has been mounting. Sunday is edging closer, when the footballers will take the hopes of the county down to Croke Park to play Dublin. And that means taking on the Leinster champions in their own backyard. Ian O'Riordan finds the Louth skipper optimistic ahead of Sunday's Croke Park clash with Dublin

If there is tension in the air then full back and captain Aaron Hoey has found the best way of avoiding it. He works in Dublin. So while nerves are tested back home in Dundalk he can walk anonymously through the blue jerseys on the city's streets.

But there is still no hiding from the facts. Hoey knows Dublin will start as clear favourites. He knows they are totally focused on Louth. Yet Sunday, he says, is just another championship match and not the make or break point of Louth's season.

"The spirit in the team has been very good this week. There is great optimism, and great belief that we really can achieve something this season. Of course we all see this as a big game and we are all looking forward to it," he says.

"But there's no way you can come into the championship thinking about peaking at the very start. In any championship campaign you can't be relying on one game at the beginning to be the high point.

"So we're looking at Sunday as we would any other championship game, in that it's one we have to win. But we've set out to improve along the way as well. I hear there is a lot of talk at home about this game, and that 15,000 might be travelling down, but I've been away from it so I really don't know just how much pressure there is."

The one definite advantage Louth hold over Dublin is they've already had a championship run-

out, albeit against a novice-like Wicklow team. The match was played in Croke Park, too, and has helped break the ice on their championship season, whereas Dublin come in from the cold.

Yet Hoey isn't clutching on that straw. "To be honest, I don't think that will play much of a part on Sunday. There is a lot of talk about the big difference in playing in Croke Park. But most fields around the country are a similar size now so from that point of view I don't think it makes much difference.

"The main thing, really, is the surroundings are very different. And you can feel a big difference when you are playing into the Canal End compared to the Hill 16 end. And the pitch itself is absolutely perfect. But Croke Park was always where I wanted to play as a youngster and that feeling hasn't changed."

The game against Wicklow, he says, was a limited exercise, and Dublin are sure to turn up the heat from the throw-in. "I know this game will definitely be played at a much higher intensity, and the pace is going to be much faster, especially at the start. That will always level out to some extent but against Wicklow it really didn't feel like we were playing at championship pace."

It might be, however, that Louth's main strength could show up a possible Dublin weakness. Last summer, the scoring rate of the Dublin forwards would have been strikingly limited if Ray Cosgrove was taken out of the picture. With questions surrounding Cosgrove's form coming into this game, Louth can rest a little more assured that their forward line are at least in good scoring mood.

Against Wicklow, full forwards JP Rooney (2-3), Mark Stanfield (2-3) and Ollie McDonnell (0-4) all impressed and they will surely test the Dublin defence to the limits.

"I think in any game it's going to be up to the forwards to deliver," says Hoey. "They are the ones that are going to win games. And I think we do have as good a forward line as anywhere in the country, so that has to be our main strength."

While Hoey, now 25, has always been a stand-out player for his club, St Bride's, he admits this year's captaincy was totally unexpected. When manager Paddy Carr asked him, he says, he "didn't know what he (Carr) was thinking about".

Already it has been the season of surprises, but that, says Hoey, was never part of their strategy for Sunday. "We know Dublin will have done their homework on us as much as we have done the homework on then. And manager Tommy Lyons is no fool. He'll have his team ready for this game, so we certainly aren't relying on any element of surprise."

Only their belief.