Sport

Relegation assured for Down but Burns sees some progress

Down&rsquo;s Conaill McGovern leaves the Pairc Ui Rinn pitch after Sunday&rsquo;s defeat to Cork<br />Picture by Sportsfile
Down’s Conaill McGovern leaves the Pairc Ui Rinn pitch after Sunday’s defeat to Cork
Picture by Sportsfile
Down’s Conaill McGovern leaves the Pairc Ui Rinn pitch after Sunday’s defeat to Cork
Picture by Sportsfile

National Football League Division One: Cork 0-12 Down 0-7

DOWN’S relegation to Division Two was confirmed after a dour away trip to Cork which rarely sparked into life.

The Mourne men’s defensive line held firm for the opening 23 minutes, but once Cork got their first score on the board they eclipsed Down’s three-point lead in half the time it took to build. The first-half featured a mere seven scores, and only one from play, but within seven minutes of the resumption, Luke Connolly and Paul Kerrigan had both posted a superb brace of points which gave Cork the five-point margin they would maintain until the last whistle.

Down never got within one score of Cork at any stage during the final 30 minutes, although Eamonn Burns was left to regret missed goal chances from Conaill McGovern and Donal O’Hare midway through the second half. With only one goal to their name in six League games – and that a fluke against Dublin – the Down boss knows where improvement is needed.

“I thought a lot of our structures are starting to take shape,” said Burns. 

“Our defensive structure was good today and I thought our transition through the middle sector was good. We need to do a bit of work on our inside forwards and our shot selection, but we’ve time to do that.

“We created plenty of chances, we just didn’t take them. We’d have liked more scores on the board. That’s maybe the third or fourth time we’ve racked up seven points but really, if you’re going to win games, you need to be scoring more than seven points. You need to be putting the ball in the back of the net.”

Burns will use the remaining trip to Mayo, who continue to battle against joining Down in Division Two, to prepare for the Championship. Cork, however, will remain focused on the League as, despite sitting on six points, they travel to Tralee next weekend needing a result against Kerry, or for other results to go in their favour, to make their Division One status certain.

At their worst at the start of the match, Cork rarely looked like penetrating Down’s defensive system. Mark Collins spurned two goal chances, one being saved by Michael Cunningham and the other dragged wide, but his teammates created little else.

Placed balls by O’Hare (0-2) and a boomer by goalkeeper Cunningham helped Down build a three-point advantage, but frees from Colm O’Neill (0-2) and Luke Connolly, as well as Collins providing the lone score from play, gave Cork a one-point half-time lead, 0-4 to 0-3. 

It was in the opening minutes of the second-half that Connolly and Kerrigan made the points safe: “We’re working and we’re learning, and we’re trying to improve – that’s what I’m taking from it,” said Cork boss Peadar Healy. 

“We’re giving players game-time and opportunities to see if they can strengthen the squad. We needed the two points and we got the two points but it was a poor game - it never took off for both teams. What it was down to? I don’t know. Maybe we were very conscious that we needed the two points today and maybe that was in our head. We just didn’t seem to express ourselves.”

While their defence, which conceded a League-high 9-78 entering the game, showed signs of progression against Down’s lacklustre attack, Healy was less happy with attacking failings repeating themselves.

“I thought we were solid at the back, we worked hard around the middle of the pitch but up front, again, we at times we overdid it, or rushed that final pass, or got one-on-one twice in the first 20 minutes and if we scored one of those goals it might have settled us down.”

MATCH STATS


Cork: R Price; K Crowley, J O’Sullivan, E Cadogan; K O’Driscoll, B O’Driscoll, D Hazel; I Maguire, S Kiely; C O’Driscoll, L Connolly (0-3, 0-1 free), M Collins (0-3); C O’Neill (0-4, 0-3 frees, 0-1 45), P Kelleher, P Kerrigan (0-2); Subs: R Deane for Kiely (46), B Hurley for Kelleher (46), D McEoin for Connolly (62), D Goulding for O’Neill (64), A O’Sullivan for Maguire (67).


Down: M Cunningham (0-1 free); G Collins, G McGovern, D O’Hagan; J Flynn, A Carr, D O’Hanlon (0-1 free); P Turley, H Brown; C Maginn, K McKernan, J Murphy; C McGovern (0-1), D O’Hare (0-3 frees), B O’Hagan; Subs: D McKibbin for Flynn (h-t), M Poland (0-1) for Maginn (41), P Devlin for B O’Hagan (48), S Dornan for O’Hare (64); Black card: J Murphy, replaced by R Mallon (32).


Referee: S Hurson (Tyrone).