Allianz Football League Division Three: Tipperary 1-11 Down 2-11
Down didn't do enough of the right things when reduced to 14 men, said selector Mickey Donnelly, but they did just enough to take two League points away from Tipperary.
The Mournemen, in their first League outing under new manager Conor Laverty, showed greater organisation and assuredness for 40 minutes at Semple Stadium until an element of chaos took hold with Niall McParland's dismissal for a second yellow card.
Their lead, once 1-6 to 0-1, was whittled back to two points as Tipperary pushed for a late goal.
"I certainly don't want to use the red card as a crutch for the level of our performance but we would back ourselves to look after the ball better than we did," said Donnelly of a second half in which Down were out-scored by 1-9 to 1-5.
"Unfortunately, we just coughed up far too much cheap ball; kicking ball away, carrying ball into dark alleys and whatnot.
"Momentum is a huge thing in football and going that last 10, 12 minutes of the game, Tipp had all the momentum. It would have been easy to have slipped away and concede another bad goal but a few lads put their hands up and really put their bodies on the line.
"Conor Fitz[patrick] had a great block, we'd a couple of great turnovers, Pierce [Laverty] came out a couple of times really well, and ultimately those are the fine margins it comes down to.
"Those are going to be very important against Antrim, against Fermanagh, in all of these, because there are going to be struggles."
There was no hint of a struggle in the opening half. Down were intent on going for the jugular in attack while defending in numbers. They denied Tipperary so much as a shot from play in the first half, although opposition manager David Power bemoaned a 16-5 first-half free count and the fact that more than six minutes of time were not added on at the end.
"Every time we were trying to come out of defence, Down were fouling. The referee was very slow. There should have been way more cards given," he
said.
"I thought it was [done] purposely. They were well drilled. They had it well sussed. There were different people fouling Mikey O'Shea, for example.
I was disappointed with that.
"The substitutes were so slow coming off, I thought there should have been even more minutes added on."
In attack, Down did their best work in the opening 22 minutes; their risk-taking approach exemplified by Eamon Brown turning down a simple scorable free on the 21m line to probe for a goal.
Their most incisive moment saw Brown and Pat Havern combine for a slick 20th-minute goal, Brown's brilliant reverse pass wrongfooting the Tipp cover. When
Havern added a point two minutes later, he already had 1-3 to his name but it would be Down's last score for 24 minutes, with Barry O'Hagan black-carded for 10 of those.
Donnelly said Down couldn't handle Tipp's physicality at times, with Steven O'Brien and Mark Russell making an impact when introduced off the bench. Andrew
Gilmore (0-3) did the same at the other end and when Gilmore's speculative high ball was misjudged by Tipp keeper Michael O'Reilly, Conor Francis tapped in to make it 2-10 to 0-9 after 61 minutes.
A Teddy Doyle goal sparked another late Tipp surge. In a frantic finale, Gilmore cracked the Tipp crossbar, Havern won and pointed an insurance free, O'Brien, surrounded by red jerseys, couldn't force home a shot on goal, and Doyle was sent off for a second yellow card.
"We struggled physically with Tipp for long periods of the game but it's great to get a good start," said Donnelly. "That's what we came for. It'd be nicer to have played well but we're up and running."
Tipperary: M O'Reilly; S O'Connell, J Feehan, D Carew; K Fahey, C O'Shaughnessy, E Moloney; L Boland, J Kennedy (0-1 free); M Stokes, M O'Shea (0-1), T Doyle (1-0); C Sweeney (0-4, 0-3 frees), L McGrath, S O'Connor (0-1 free).
Substitutes: C Deeley for Boland (32); S O'Brien for O'Connor (h-t); C Cadell for Stokes (44); M Russell (0-2) for Moloney (51); D Leahy (0-2)
for Sweeney (63).
Red card: Doyle (70+4).
Down: J O'Hare; R Magill, P Laverty, R McEvoy; C Francis (1-0), N McParland, M Rooney; N Donnelly, O Murdock (0-1); G Collins, D McAleenan, L Kerr; E Brown (0-2), P Havern (1-4, 0-1 free, 0-1 mark), B O'Hagan (0-1 free).
Substitutes: A Gilmore (0-3, 0-2 frees) for Brown (45); C Doherty for Rooney (47); C Fitzpatrick for Donnelly (52); M Welsh for O'Hagan (61); P Branagan for Collins (70).
Black card: O'Hagan (24-34).
Red card: McParland (40).
Referee: Chris Maguire (Clare).
Attendance: 1,013.
