Down stumble to defeat

Down stumble to defeat

12 February 2020

DOWN struggled with the wild and windy conditions at Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Sunday when they fell to their first defeat of the campaign.

Cork’s third win in Division 3 maintained their perfect start, taking the maximum six points on offer from the opening three rounds to lead the way.

The home side played with a gale force wind behind them in the first half and raced to a 0-8 to 0-2 half-time lead, and they never looked back.

Donal O’Hare opened the scoring for Paddy Tally’s side in the first minute, but this was to be a rarity as Down’s only other score in the first half came from Owen McCabe in the 32nd minute as Cork dominated.

Watched by a crowd of just 1,658, Cork used the elements to their advantage and points from John O’Rourke, Cathail O’Mahoney, Damien Gore (0-2), Brian Hartnett and Ciaran Sheehan gave them a 0-7 to 0-1 lead by the 24th minute.

The next score of the game eight minutes later came from McCabe, but Ruairi Deane pointed the hosts into a 0-8 to 0-2 interval lead.

Down introduced Corey Quinn and Liam Kerr at the start of the second half, but they were unable to really get going as a resolute home side refused to hand over the initiative.

Hartnett and Darren O’Hagan swapped scores before Paul Devlin reduced the arrears to five points in the 39th minute, but that was as good as it got for Down.

Points from Liam O’Donovan and Gore stretched Cork’s lead to seven points before McCabe registered his second of the Day and Down’s fifth in the 43rd minute.

Cork responded with a flurry of points from O’Mahoney, Tadgh Corkery and Ian Maguire to take a 0-14 to 0-5 lead.

A Quinn point gave Down some respite, but this was cancelled out by another point from O’Mahoney. Down then hit a purple patch and points from O’Hare and Darren O’Hagan were followed by a Quinn goal to reduce the arrears to four points.

Alas, Down were unable to kick on and Cork closed up shop with Luke Connolly registering the last score of the game to record a comfortable victory. 

Cork: M Martin, S Powter, T Clancy (0-1), K Crowley, T Corkery (0-1), L O’Donovan (0-1), M Taylor, I Maguire (0-2), B Hartnett (0-1), R Deane (0-1), S White, J O’Rourke (0-1), D Gore (0-3, 2f), C Sheehan (0-1f), C O’Mahoney (0-3, 2f). Subs: C O’Callaghan for Sheehan, L Connolly (0-1f) for Deane, P Kerrigan for Gore, K O’Hanlon for O’Rourke, C Kiely for Powter.

Down: R Burns, G Collins, P Murdock, R McAleenan, S Annett, D O’Hagan (0-2), J Flynn, C Poland, O McCabe (0-2), B O’Hagan, P Devlin (0-1), D Guinness, J Johnston, D O’Hare (0-2f), K McKernan. Subs: L Kerr for Annett, C Quinn (1-1) for McKernan, S Dornan for Devlin, J Guinness for Collins, L Middleton for Poland.