Allianz National Football League Division Three: Sligo 1-10 Down 1-12
EVERY resident in Collooney must have heard the roar from the GAA pitch on the far side of the small Co Sligo village yesterday afternoon as Caolan Mooney’s last-gasp goal sent the travelling Down supporters into raptures.
Trailing by a point in the last seconds of an engrossing Division Three encounter, Mooney had no intentions of clipping the ball over Sligo’s bar and settling for a share of the spoils.
After a slick move up the field involving Darren O’Hagan, Johnny Flynn and Kevin McKernan, super sub Donal O’Hare fisted the ball across the face of the Sligo goal and Mooney thumped the ball into the roof of the net.
Mooney’s major was rough justice on the Yeats men who didn’t deserve to lose this clash.
The home side led 1-2 to no score after six minutes and were still ahead by two points at the break [1-5 to 0-6].
In an end-to-end clash, the visitors edged in front thanks to Mooney’s first score of the day after 55 minutes, but Sligo showed stiff resilience to get their noses in front again in stoppage-time through a brilliantly taken effort by Sean Carribine.
But the Mournemen had the last laugh, showing wonderful composure and wit to carve out the winning strike in the 74th minute.
Yesterday’s hard-earned victory felt like a significant day in the early throes of Paddy Tally’s reign as Down manager.
After last weekend’s second-half collapse against Laois, back-to-back defeats might have had a demoralising impact on this relatively young Down squad and reduced their chances of promotion.
But one confident strike of the ball by Mooney could change everything.
“We probably did steal it,” Tally admitted afterwards.
“I’d say Sligo are bitterly disappointed with that. They were one point up going into injury-time and I’m sure they thought they were going to win it.
“We were able to get ourselves level and get a point ahead but we weren’t able to hold onto it. But a goal at that late stage is very hard to come back from. So I’ll take it.”
Tally rightly cited the return of experienced trio Ryan Johnston, Kevin McKernan and captain Darren O’Hagan in seeing Down get over the line yesterday.
The introduction of Johnston and Donal O’Hare - in the 15th and 27th minutes, respectively – were also crucial to the outcome.
The lively O’Hare bagged two points before half-time and grabbed another pair in the second half before assisting for Mooney’s winning goal.
Johnston and Mooney kept running at the heart of the Sligo defence and got a lot of joy in the second period.
“We knew we just had to get something out of the game today,” Tally said.
“We lost last week [to Laois] and we were disappointed with our performance. We've still a lot of work to do. We made a lot of mistakes and [conceded] a lot of turnovers today. There are boys still finding their feet at this level, which is part of it; it takes a few matches.
“But a wee bit of experience helped us today. Darren O’Hagan came in, Kevin McKernan, Caolan Mooney got more football and Ryan Johnston as well. Those players made a significant difference.”
Afterwards, Sligo boss Paul Taylor expressed his dismay at referee Padraig Hughes’s display, although at times the Armagh whistler frustrated the Down players.
Sligo’s classy full-forward Pat Hughes, who grabbed 1-1 after six minutes and was causing all sorts of trouble before O’Hagan was moved onto him, was red-carded in the 67th minute for a high tackle on O’Hare.
“I would genuinely have to question a lot of refereeing decisions,” said Taylor, a former Sligo stalwart. “The red card wasn’t a red card. It was a black card and Pat [Hughes] would have come off anyway.
“We had momentum and the referee brought us back three of four times. He is supposed to be a Division One referee, and he’s an Armagh referee too which, I have to say, is a bit close to home.
“But it’s not where he’s from – the standard was terrible. To slow the game up the way he was doing when we were making attacks… Down were slowing the game up, and fair play to them, but the referee should be able to see through that.”
Taylor was quick to add: “Having said that it, it wasn’t the referee that beat us. We were beaten by a good team; I don’t think we were beaten by a better team.”
Collooney felt like the edge of the world yesterday.
Played under misty, grey skies and constant rain, Sligo caught their visitors cold with attackers Pat Hughes and Niall Murphy causing mayhem, while Down had no answer to Paul McNamara’s eye-catching breaks out of defence.
The hosts made good use of the ‘attacking mark’ in the early stages before the Down defence steadied themselves.
And just when the Mournemen looked to be taking control of proceedings in the second half, Sligo would land a sucker punch.
The Down attack always looked more threatening when Mooney grabbed hold of the ball and started running at Sligo.
His second-half 1-2 haul from play made him the outstanding player on the pitch closely followed by O’Hagan, O’Hare and Ryan Johnston.
“I thought Sligo punished a lot of our mistakes,” said Tally. “When we went level I’d have taken the draw and being a point behind towards the end I thought the boys showed really good composure to get the goal in a real tight situation.”
The people of Collooney will remember hearing that roar on the far side of the village for a long time.
And it may prove to be an important day for this young Down team. The Mournemen are up and running.
Sligo: A Devaney (0-1 free); N Mullen, P Laffey, J Carr; L Nicholson, P McNamara, G O’Kelly-Lynch; P Kilcoyne, A McIntyre; L Gaughan (0-2), P O’Connor, S Carribine (0-2, 0-1 free); A Marren, P Hughes (1-2, 0-2 frees), N Murphy (0-3, 0-2 frees) Subs: C Henry for L Nicholson (53), A McLaughlin for A McIntyre (57), B O’Gorman for A Marren (64), B McGowan for P O’Connor (69)
Yellow cards: N Murphy (48), S Carribine (68)
Red cards: P Hughes (67)
Down: R Burns; D O’Hagan, S Murnin, G Collins; S Fegan, C Flanagan, C Mooney (1-2); L Devlin, J Flynn; C Francis, C Poland, K McKernan; J Johnston (0-1 free), P Havern (0-1), P Devlin (0-2 frees) Subs: R Johnston (0-2) for S Murnin (15), D O’Hare (0-4, 0-2 frees) for J Johnston (27), D McCarthy for L Devlin (h/t), C Harrison for P Havern (50), B O’Hagan for P Devlin (54)
Yellow cards: J Flynn (26), C Poland (41)
Blood substitution: C McGrady for C Mooney (60-63)
Referee: P Hughes (Armagh)
