Down improve, but fall to narrow reversal in Clones

10 February 2016

MONAGHAN made it two wins from two in Division 1 after edging out a revitalised Down in Clones on Sunday.

Following their dramatic snatch-and-grab victory over Roscommon the previous Sunday, Malachy O’Rourke’s charges were more convincing winners on this occasion.

However, they couldn’t relax at any stage against a spirited Down team who showed a marked improvement on their nightmare opening round display against Donegal in Newry.

With the rain pouring down, the visitors settled quickly thanks to early points from Connaire Harrison and Darragh O’Hanlon, but Monaghan were level by the sixth minute through efforts from Owen Duffy and Shane Carey.

The momentum remained with Eamon Burns’ men as further points from Harrison (2) and Shay McArdle made it 0-5 to 0-2 after 15 minutes.

Conor McManus ended a 14-minute scoring drought for Monaghan, who proceeded to take control with six unanswered points.

Duffy, McManus, Ryan McAnespie, Thomas Kerr and Fintan Kelly were all on target as the Ulster champions turned things around to lead by 0-8 to 0-5.

McArdle briefly broke their momentum before Kelly replied to re-establish their three-point advantage, 0-9 to 0-6, at the break.

Carey and Darragh O’Hanlon (free) traded points on the restart before Monaghan goalkeeper Rory Beggan came forward to kick his customary ‘45.

O’Hanlon narrowed the gap again in the 58th minute before there was a big moment when Packie Downey fired over for Down with a goal at his mercy.

Following that let-off, Daniel McKenna replied for the home side to make it 0-13 to 0-9, but Down kept pressing as points from Mark McKay and Harrison (free) left just two between the teams.

An injury to Mark Poland resulted in seven minutes of injury-time being played, but the Farney men weren’t to be denied.

Down manager Eamonn Burns took encouragement from his side’s performance.

While defeat was the Mourne county’s lot for the second weekend in a row, their display was much improved on that against Donegal eight days earlier.

“We’re disappointed that we didn’t get anything out of the game,” Burns said.

“We created chances and I thought we created enough chances to win. At the end of the day, conditions were tough and we’re happy with our performance, but not with the result.

“It was a good improvement on last week, but when we look back at it, things didn’t go our way and we felt we were closer to Donegal than the scoreboard suggested.”

Burns is already looking forward to the visit of Kerry, who are also looking for their first point after the first two rounds, to Newry in three weeks’ time.

“We’ll get our heads down and there’s plenty of work to do. We have a lot of lads in this year and we brought a few of them on today. We’re happy with the progress they’re making but we have a lot of work to do.

“Division 1 is going to be a battle, there’s not a whole lot between the teams and I thought we showed today that we can play with the best of them. We’re looking forward to Kerry in a couple of weeks.”

Monaghan: R Beggan (0-1, ’45), C Boyle, D Wylie, K Duffy, R McAnespie (0-2), C Walshe, K O’Connell, N McAdam, F Kelly (0-1), S Carey (0-2), D Malone (0-1), T Kerr (0-1), O Duffy (0-2), D Hughes, C McManus (0-2, 1f). Subs: R Wylie for Boyle, K Hughes for O’Connell, D McKenna (0-1) for Duffy, S Gollogly for Malone, D Mone for Kelly.

Down: S Kane, G McGovern, C McGovern, M Magee, D O’Hanlon (0-3, 1f), R Boyle, M Hughes, P Turley, H Brown, K McKernan, M Poland, J Murphy, A Carr, C Harrison (0-4, 3f), S McArdle (0-2). Subs: S Dornan for Poland, P Downey (0-1) for McArdle, L Howard for Hughes, R Mallon for Murphy, M McKay (0-1) for Turley.

Monaghan 0-13

Down.............................0-11

NFL DIVISION 1

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