THE large crowd in attendance at St Patrick’s Park on Friday spoke volumes on what was expected to be an entertaining and physically challenging game for both Saul and Downpatrick RGU.
Saul were coming into the game following a convincing 13-point win against Liatroim the week before and they were hoping to repeat their previous victory over Downpatrick in this reverse fixture. Meanwhile, Downpatrick were on their own four-game winning streak and hoping to keep the momentum going into the final games of the season.
It was Downpatrick who got the scoring underway just three minutes into the game as Conor McGrady executed his point conversion well.
Saul responded as only they can – with a Callum Mahoney pass into Rory Mullen, who smashed the ball into the back of the net for a goal.
Ciaràn Harney then tagged on his first point of the game for the Saul outfit.
Downpatrick replied through Conor Doherty, whose free was moved forward by the referee, leaving an easy job for the man in green and white.
But, Saul proved how deadly they were and with just 13 minutes on the clock the hosts secured their second goal of the game.
This time it was Aodhàn Harney who was the provider, with his long ball into the box setting up Ruari O’Hare to raise the green flag.
For the next ten minutes of play it was point for point, with Jarlath Branagan (free) and Harney trading scores.
Downpatrick’s Lewis Green kept the pressure on Saul with his own point from play, but O’Hare responded by splitting the posts following a clash of players which resulted in Tom McNeill and Lorcan Harney both receiving bookings.
Inside the last four minutes of the half, Saul’s James Mahoney and Joe Hayes found their range before Downpatrick’s Caolan Mooney landed a free.
At the interval Saul led by two goals.
And the hits kept coming as Saul’s Ciaràn Harney kicked over a close range for the first point of the second half and the game looked to be wrapped up soon thereafter when O’Hare won the RGU kick out before steamrolling at pace through Downpatrick’s backline and grabbing his second goal of the game.
To their credit, Downpatrick responded with four straight points through Matty Hardy, Conor Doherty (two frees) and Mooney, and when Saul were reduced to 14 men following Lorcan Harney’s red card there was glimmers of hope for a turnaround.
However, with five minutes to go, Saul were ahead by six.
Conor Doherty knocked over his fourth point of the game from another free, but Downpatrick went down to 14 men themselves when Anthony Doherty received a black card.
Philip Doran and ‘keeper Cathal Kinsella added two scores for the home team before Downpatrick’s Johnny Collins replied, but this simply wasn’t enough.
Ciarán Harney landed the final score of the game to rubber stamp the result for Saul.
A confident performance from the Saul team to keep up their promotion hopes, whilst Downpatrick sit fourth in the table and three points behind the top two teams.
Saul: C Kinsella (0-1), J Magilton, A Harney, R Connolly, P Doran (0-1), C Harney (0-4), L Harney, R O’Hare (1-1), R Mullen (1-0), C Mahoney, J Mahoney (0-1), J Hayes (0-1), G Murdock, J Mahoney, O Magee.
Subs: J Johnston, G Robinson, L Ritchie, L Carew, R Connor, C Roberts.
Downpatrick RGU: J Deeny, A Doherty, P Smith, S Bell, J Shields, J Branagan (0-2), G Collins, T McNeill, C Mooney (0-2), M Fitzpatrick, M Hardy, L Green (0-1), C McGrady (0-1), C Doherty (0-4), D Milligan.
Subs: T Smyth, J Collins (0-1), T Prenter, R Murphy, A Robinson, T Collins, D Braniff, A McNeill.