Morale booster as Down see off lively students

Morale booster as Down see off lively students

17 January 2018

DOWN finished their McKenna Cup game on a high after recording a comfortable eight-point win over Ulster University at Burren on Sunday.

Eamon Burns made several changes to the side which started against Derry last Wednesday night with Darragh Cross’ Shane Murray and Downpatrick’s Conor McGrady catching the eye.

The freezing cold and wet conditions failed to hamper Down early on and points from Sean Dornan, Aaron Morgan and Murray (0-2) gave the home side a 0-4 to 0-0 lead after seven minutes.

UU registered their first score in the 19th minute through Saval’s Niall Madine before Connaire Harrison buried the ball in the back of the net after a typically swashbuckling run when he got on the end of good approach play from Conor Poland and Murray.

McGrady tagged on a sweet point from play in the 24th minute before Saul’s Lorcan Harney lofted over his side’s second point from play.

Madine and Harrison swapped points as the first half drew to a close, but it was UU who had the final say of the first half with another Madine free sending his side in at the break trailing 1-6 to 0-4.

Eamon McHugh and Shay Millar exchanged points at the start of the second half before Millar into a 1-8 to 0-5 lead.

Back came UU and points from Matthew Walsh and Ronan McNamee left four between the sides.

Anthony Doherty quickly made it a five-point game, but UU made a game of it when McNamee and Walsh took two fine scores to reduce Down’a lead to 1-9 to 0-9.

That was as close as UU got as Down finished the stronger and unanswered points from Harrison, Kevin McKernan, Doherty, Gerard McGovern and Barry O’Hagan were enough to kill off their opponents.

Manager Burns gave a frank appraisal of his side’s display at the final whistle.

“We tied together two halves of football. I thought we had a good second half against Armagh and we started very well against Derry, but I thought we had two good halves here,” he said.

“A lot of things worked out for us and there are others that we need to do a lot of work on. But there are positives going forward. We had Aaron Morgan and Conor Poland in midfield and they did really, really well,” he added.

“Niall McParland is just coming back and Peter Turley is out with a bout of ‘flu.

“So, we are trying to strengthen everywhere. If we want to make progress this year, that’s what we have to do. The lads who have come in have performed fairly well. I’m happy the way things are moving forward.”

Down: S Harrison, C Flanagan, S Murnin, B McArdle, A Doherty (0-2), N McParland, K Quinn, A Morgan (0-1), C Poland, S Millar (0-2), C Maginn, C McGrady (0-1), C Harrison (1-2, 0-1f), S Dornan (0-1), S Murray (0-2). Subs: R Millar for Murray, K McKernan (0-1) for McGrady, B O’Hagan (0-1) for Dornan, G McGovern (0-1) for Quinn. 

Ulster University: S Fox, R Lively, C Burke, E Murray, M Magee, R Brennan, S Loughran, J Monroe, M Walsh (0-3), R McAnespie, E McHugh (0-1), P Laverty, D Tallon, N Madine (0-3, 0-2f), L Harney (0-1). Subs: T O’Brien for Burke, M Bradley for Hasrnry, D Mulgrew for Laverty, R McNamee (0-1) for Brennan, D Gallagher for Tallon, D Duffin for Lively. 

Down 1-14

Ulster University 0-9

McKENNA CUP SECTION B