DOWN 3-20 SLIGO 0-10
DOWN decimated Sligo at Breffni Park to reach the quarter-finals of the All-Ireland championship.
Sligo offered little in the way of opposition six days after their Connacht final defeat to Roscommon but Down punished their vulnerability ruthlessly.
James McCartan reflected on the impressive nature of the win.
“We put a team away. We had a chance. We got a team on a downer and we emphatically took advantage of it. We’re not world beaters overnight but the questions that were asked of us over the last couple of games, we responded to,” he said.
Respond they did and in some style too. It took just 15 seconds for Down to post their first point through John Clarke and from there they never looked back.
Kalum King was superb in midfield and earned man of the match plaudits for his performance. He ensured early on that the Down half-forward line saw plenty of possession.
Despite his and his team-mates’ impressive displays King remains grounded.
“This season we’ve had a few good performances. Sligo just didn’t recover from being beaten by Roscommon. We caught them on the hop. We don’t want to build it up because if we go out next week and get beaten then we’re nothings,” he said.
Nevertheless there was something special about Down on Saturday night. Their attacks were incisive, quick and relentless. It allowed Martin Clarke, Mark Poland and Danny Hughes to all add points in the opening ten minutes. In contrast Sligo struggled. Down nullified the attacking threat that David Kelly and company posed.
Kelly was restricted to two first-half points and although Stephen Coen, Adrian Marren and Mark Breheny added scores for Sligo it was proving to be an impossible task for Sligo to curtail Down’s attacks.
Three Martin Clarke points pushed Down into a five-point lead and on 29 minutes Down netted for the first time.
A sublime ball from Conor Garvey played Benny Coulter in on the left wing. The Mayobridge man shirked his marker and floated a pass to the waiting John Clarke at the back post. Clarke duly palmed home.
McComiskey and Poland added points before the break to leave Down coasting at half-time on a score-line of 1-10 to 0-06.
Down needed a good start to the second half and they got it. They went on to post a better scoring tally in the second period than they did in the first.
It gave Down the luxury of substituting players who picked up knocks along the way. Damien Rafferty, Benny Coulter, Paul McComiskey all made way after slight strains. Ronan Murtagh was one substitute with something to prove. The Ballyholland forward played like a man possessed, scoring a total of 1-05 in a mesmerising second half performance.
His first three scores were all fisted points and his goal saw him in the right place at the right time. Fellow substitute Peter Fitzpatrick burst through the Sligo defence and had the audacity and vision to lob the Sligo goalkeeper only to see his effort rebound off the post. Murtagh was on hand to slam the ball home to further demoralise Sligo.
By that stage they were a beaten team. Ambrose Rodgers had already added a second Down goal on 39 minutes. The Longstone man combined with Martin Clarke to put himself into a scoring position. Sligo keeper Philip Greene parried Rodgers’ initial effort only to see the midfielder fire the rebound into the net.
With the pressure off Down began to play with a swagger, much to the delight of the Mourne fans who had made the journey to Cavan.
Murtagh’s five successive points put Down into an unassailable 2-17 to 0-08 lead. At that stage the half-back line were pouring forward, hoping to get in on the scoring action. Conor Garvey and Kevin McKernan both got their names on the score-sheet.
Sligo were sitting ducks but the clinical matter in which Down were able to pick them off was highly impressive.
McCartan was clearly pleased with his charges performance but was wary of the fact that Sligo were psychologically affected by their defeat to Roscommon six days earlier.
“It’s very unfair. The system of a six-day turnaround; I was on the receiving end of that in my last year as a player. I know what it’s like trying to raise a dressing room. It’s not easy and I do think that it’s something that would need to be looked at. It seems to penalise the team who loses the provincial final,” he said.
The Down boss has been pragmatic all year and was keen to stress that the emphatic nature of the win will count for nothing at the quarterfinal stage.
“You’re fairly quick going from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the trench. The team’s on a learning curve. If you take three or four players out of it they’re pretty inexperienced. A lot of them are in single figures for Championship games.”
McCartan may be right. Expectations in Down are sure to skyrocket after the manner of this victory and given that they are sure to face a sterner test this weekend those expectations may be somewhat unfair.
At the outset of the season McCartan’s goal were to secure safety in Division Two and to play football at Croke Park in the summer. He already exceeded expectations in terms of league position and the hope is that he can continue to exceed expectations at Croke Park this weekend.
DOWN: Brendan McVeigh, Daniel McCartan, Dan Gordon, Damien Rafferty, Declan Rooney, Kevin McKernan (0-01), Conor Garvey (0-01), Ambrose Rodgers (1-01), Kalum King, Daniel Hughes (0-03), Mark Poland (0-02), Paul McComiskey (0-01), Brendan Coulter, John Clarke (1-01) and Martin Clarke (0-04) Subs: Ronan Murtagh (1-05), Darren O’Hagan, Peter Fitzpatrick (0-01), Ronan Sexton and Jason Brown
SLIGO: Philip Greene, Charlie Harrison, Noel McGuire, Ross Donovan, Keelan Cawley, Brian Kennedy, Johnny Davey, Eugene Mullan, Sean Downey, Alan Costello, Mark Brehony (0-01), Eamonn O’Hara, Stephen Coen (0-02), Adrian Marren (0-03) and David Kelly (0-02). Subs: Paul McGovern, Stephen Gilmartin, Kenneth Sweeney, Colm McGee (0-02) and Francis Quinn