Football

Down with it all to do after Offaly snatch late win over relegation rivals

Lee Pearson fists over Offaly's winning score during Saturday night's crunch Division Two clash at Pairc Esler in Newry. Picture by Philip Walsh
Lee Pearson fists over Offaly's winning score during Saturday night's crunch Division Two clash at Pairc Esler in Newry. Picture by Philip Walsh Lee Pearson fists over Offaly's winning score during Saturday night's crunch Division Two clash at Pairc Esler in Newry. Picture by Philip Walsh

Allianz National Football League Division Two: Down 0-14 Offaly 0-15

THE look on the players’ faces said it all. Hoods up, eyes down, walking out into the night where the sound of heaving rain on tarmac provided a fitting soundtrack to the most melancholy of moods around Pairc Esler.

Any post-mortem immediately after Saturday’s gut-wrenching last gap defeat to Offaly had been short. Perhaps there was no point with the pain so raw.

The Faithful got what they deserved because they held their nerve when it mattered, bagging four late scores on the bounce to snatch what could prove two priceless points in the search for Division Two survival.

“We were hoping to get a break somewhere along the line – we’re thrilled to bits,” beamed Offaly boss John Maughan.

“There was a manliness about the performance, a never-say-die attitude. The conviction was there, the winning mentality was there… Down were in a precarious position like ourselves, we knew it was going to be a big, big game, and thankfully we came out on top.”

For James McCartan’s men, this one might just be tougher to absorb than the 11-point hammering at the hands of Roscommon a fortnight earlier. Ever since the National League fixtures were unveiled at the end of last year, this game was ringed in the calendar.

Others could be broken into ifs, buts and maybes, cases made for potential points here and there, but nothing less than victory over promoted Offaly would do if Down were to retain any realistic hopes of remaining in Division Two.

And, with five minutes left of a scrappy, error-strewn encounter not helped by the sheets of rain that descended diagonally after half-time, the Mournemen – who welcomed back star forward Barry O’Hagan, Carryduff’s Daniel Guinness and the Kilcoo pair of Niall Kane and Ryan McEvoy - had it in their hands.

With the wind at their backs, two Liam Kerr points finally engineered a gap that could have been extended to a surely unassailable five had a goalward flick from substitute Cory Quinn not cannoned back off the crossbar.

Fellow sub Odhran Murdock followed up the move he started but saw his rebound shot diverted out of play by James Lalor. When’keeper Kane – making his first competitive start in county colours – slotted over the resulting 45, Down finally had clear daylight in a game where margins couldn’t have been tighter.

Surely – [ITALICS] surely [ITALICS] – they couldn’t let it slip from here.

The tricky Bernard Allen had the opportunity to level things up straight away but somehow screwed his left footed effort over the bar instead of into the net. Maybe this was Down’s night after all.

But when corner-back Niall Darby – nephew of Offaly’s 1982 All-Ireland hero Seamus – sliced over to narrow the gap with a minute to play, a sense of impending doom swept through a far from fully populated stand in Newry.

With a draw little use to either, it looked as though both might have to settle for a share of the spoils when Offaly ’keeper Paddy Dunican fired over a free as the game edged into added time. But the Faithful weren’t done yet.

From a promising attacking position of their own, a loose pass saw Down cheaply cough up possession for the umpteenth time. Sensing blood, and a shot in the arm for their survival hopes, the ball was swiftly worked to the speedy Lee Pearson and he burst along the outside before fisting over the bar.

The topsy-turvy nature of the game almost guaranteed one last crack at salvation of a kind, but when Barry O’Hagan’s difficult free drifted wide of the far upright, the Mourne County’s fate was sealed – on the night and, quite possibly, for the entire campaign.

“Defeat is very hard to take when you are in a winning position coming down the home straight,” said Down boss McCartan.

“A win wouldn’t have guaranteed us anything because we would still have to go and get points from the remaining games, but we would have had a little bit of momentum.

“Now we have to focus immediately on going and winning the last two games and hope that other results go our way. That’s the reality now.

“We can’t just dwell and feel sorry for ourselves, because we have a job to do and we have to go and do it.”

It’s the long trip to Cork on Sunday, scene of Down’s miraculous relegation-defying draw in 2017. McCartan would do well to not look too closely at the rest of the Mournemen’s record against the Rebels stretching back over a decade, and including the 2010 All-Ireland final defeat.

However, with Keith Ricken’s men not exactly firing on all cylinders in their own bid to escape the drop, and Clare at home on the final day, perhaps all is not lost yet.

On Saturday night, though, it felt that way.

Down: N Kane (0-1, 45); P Fegan, F McElroy, A Lynch; D O'Hagan, C Poland (0-1), D Guinness (0-1); A Doherty, N McParland; C Mooney (0-1), Liam Kerr (0-2), R McEvoy; A Gilmore (0-2, frees), P Havern (0-1), B O'Hagan (0-4). Subs: C Doherty (0-1) for Lynch (HT), G Collins for Guinness (53), C Quinn for Gilmore (62), O Murdock for McEvoy (62), K McKernan for Havern (69)

Offaly: P Dunican (0-1, free); D Hogan, J Lalor, N Darby (0-1); R Egan, C Donnelly, L Pearson (0-1); B Carroll, J Hayes (0-1); M Abbott (0-1), R McNamee (0-1), D Hyland (0-1); B Allen (0-3), N McNamee (0-3, 0-1 free), K O'Neill (0-1). Subs: C Mangan for Carroll (HT), A Sullivan (0-1) for O'Neill (52), C Flynn for N McNamee (62), C Donoghue for Hyland (65), J McEvoy for R McNamee (70+3)

Ref: B Judge (Sligo)