Dispirited team of players with county (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
cast down
'dispirited' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'team of players with county' is the wordplay.
'team of players' becomes 'cast' (I've seen this in another clue).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'county' becomes 'down' (county of Northern Ireland).
'cast'+'down'='CAST DOWN'
(Other definitions for cast down that I've seen before include "Depressed" , "Dishearten" , "Gloomy" , "Discouraged" , "in need of encouragement" .)