DOWN remain in the mix for a Division Three final place after their 4-14 to 1-7 victory over Offaly on Sunday.
Division Three is the only one not to have any finalists confirmed yet and it will make for an interesting final round this weekend.
The Mourne side face Louth, who are also among the five teams who can still qualify for the final. in their last game.
Currently, Kildare and Wexford occupy positions one and two, both level on points with five wins from six.
They play each other on Sunday knowing that a draw will be enough for both of them to book their place in the final. If the result has a winner and a loser, the loser will become broiled in a points difference battle for the other final spot against Down or Louth (whoever wins that one) or Clare, if they defeat Longford.
Down manager Peter Lynch knows what happens in other games if out of his control so for his side it’s about what they can do against Louth and he is looking forward to the battle.
“Louth, like ourselves and Clare are waiting on the outcome of Kildare and Wexford before any of us know where we are at really,” said Lynch.
“All we can do is try to look for another strong performance and hope that it will be enough. We are dependent on other scores and a significant points swing in our direction but we can only look at the controllables and that is how we get ourselves ready for Sunday and hopefully get the result that we need and then we will see how it all falling to place after that. We are looking forward to it.”
Lynch was delighted at the way Down bounced back from their last game defeat to Clare. This one was effectively over at half-time, his side leading 3-9 to no score. Niamh King found the back of the net in the fourth minute with Natasha Ferris adding a second goal in the 23rd minute and Viv McCormick getting their third two minutes before the half-time whistle.
Offaly got on the scoresheet in the second minute after the resumption but each time they scored adding a further three points, Down responded, Ferris with her second and Down’s fourth goal in the 38th minute. Ferris finished with 2-7, four points from frees, McCormick with 1-2 and King with 1-1, with Eimear Fitzpatrick, Laoise Duffy and Orla Duffy among the points scorers.
“The loss to Clare was disappointing. The players, especially disappointed with how it went that day. They have worked exceptionally hard to work on the areas that we failed in, in the Clare game so a lot of that came through yesterday and the work they put in certainly came through in the result and the performance,” he added.
