Down Club Hurling & Football

[Last Caress]

I see kilcoo are ulster league champions. Can they end the year with an other ulster title? The one that has eluded them to date. They will be happy with that tonight.... long season ahead

[Ambrose]

You'll enjoy Saturday's Irish News then!!

Can't wait

It's an excellent article and shows Poacher in a slightly different light than you'd expect. I'm sure most of us don't actually know the man, other than what we see for 70 minutes along the line. He's a very well respected coach, who just happens to be working with the opposition today, but behind it all, he's still a Down man, a passionate one at that.

[Mourne Rover]

Seems to have been quite a game in Carlow. Our winning point came in the fourth minute of injury time and, according to the KCLR coverage, Poacher went for the referee at the final whistle. The commentators were frequently confused about what was happening but we appear to have had two red cards for second yellows in the closing stages. KCLR had no clue who went off.

The postponement of Laois v Westmeath complicates everything, and gaa.ie has suggested that it will not be played `this weekend'. Monday may be an option but, if that does not happen,  a decision will have to be taken on staging the final round of league fixtures next week.

[snoopdog]

Is that 3 of our 5 wins with injury time winners. We could be very easily sitting on 4 pts. But lads have done well to always be in a position to win the games.

[Smurfy123]

Strange match. How Down found themselves in a draw game with time almost up is mad. Down dominated the match from start to finish and missed 4 goal chances. The referee give Carlow some really easy frees. Carlow kicked all but 2 score from free kicks. Good to get a win but that's a poor Carlow team who lacked any fitness. Heavy suspensions to follow for Carlow after what happened at the end.

[ardtole]

Caolan Mooney was excellent yesterday. Such quick hands, McKernan and ohagan very good too.

[Mourne Rover]

Decent team named for tomorrow, with some strength in depth developing on the bench. It's also good to see Donnelly and Mallon back in the match day squad to give us options around the middle. The only negative element is the uncertainty over the final table because of the postponed game between Louth and Westmeath, who should pretty obviously have been instructed to reschedule the fixture for last Wednesday at the latest.

[snoopdog]

Decent team named for tomorrow, with some strength in depth developing on the bench. It's also good to see Donnelly and Mallon back in the match day squad to give us options around the middle. The only negative element is the uncertainty over the final table because of the postponed game between Louth and Westmeath, who should pretty obviously have been instructed to reschedule the fixture for last Wednesday at the latest.

Win tomorrow and we are promoted . No need to worry about anyone else.

[Smurfy123]

Hearing Attical beat Ballyholland by 10 points in Thursday night. Say what you want about him but Poacher done one hell of a job for them.

[OgraAnDun]

Need Westmeath and Louth to draw next week to get out of Div 3... how far Down have fallen. Div 3 2020 it is.

[thewobbler]

Surely a draw would send Westmeath up?

Can't use head to heads in a 3-way tie, I wouldn't think.

[meatsy86]

No head to heads in a 3 way tie. Points difference will decide it. A draw for westmeath next week and we stay in Division 3. A win for either Westmeatb or Louth and we stay in Division 3.We cannot be promoted now.

[OgraAnDun]

Was looking at the as it stands table from half time! You're all correct

[Ed Hardy]

Absolutely awful stuff from Down today,  dont deserve to go to Div2  with a performance like that. A real kick in the teeth after 5 wins on the spin and very poor performance in last meaningful game before championship. Tally had improved them in certain area's no doubt, but very worrying after 7 games and McKenna cup if thats the plan for kickouts and the mf pairing. Hard to name the 15 to start against Armagh in May.

[Mourne Rover]

Today's first half was our most disappointing performance for a very long time, and, although we improved in the final quarter, the damage had been done and we managed to miss out on a promotion which was practically in our grasp.

We were uncertain from the start, with experienced figures like McKernan and Mooney making a series of unforced errors. Mooney did get a fine point which arguably should have been a goal but neither he nor Flynn are really midfielders and the opposition pairing took us apart. Our kick-out strategy was baffling, putting the ball constantly in an area which we could not gain possession, but the keeper could only have been acting on instructions.

The spine of the team was a huge problem, with Wells and Flanagan both exposed at the back before getting taken off and Poland not making an impact at centre forward.

Darren O'Hagan was our best player as usual, and nearly pulled us over the line singlehandedly, while a little more composure from our forwards in the closing stages could easily have got us the draw.

Very few of our substitutions worked and it was surprising not to see Maginn used at any stage on a day when we were crying out for a cool head on the ball.

Next year's D3 appears significantly tougher, with Cork, Tipperary and Derry all in the picture, so we could be regretting today's result for a very long time