Longford v Down

[supersub]

murtagh works a score for boyle and then down score again straight away 0-12 0-8

kearney and murtagh seem to be playin well

[supersub]

longford wastin their chances they've had a good few wides. 0-13 0-8 now kearney scored a min ago.

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magee on for murtagh and mcardle on aswell. in injury time

[Mourne Rover]

Down win by five - sounds like a decent performance

[supersub]

full time 13-8 gordan and kearney cleaned up at midfield it sounds. opposite of last week in terms of the fowards, took most of our chances and longford missed theirs!

[Trevor Hill]

The old saying "take your points and the goals will come" doesn't seem to have been heeded by the current Down team. They were guilty of going for goal too many times today when a point was the easier and more sensible option, but then again some of the long range kicking options leaves a lot to be desired.
Down raced into a 2 point lead inside the first five minutes with points from Hughes and Murtagh and it looked like Down would have it all their own way, but Longford hit back with 3 points  and Down seemed to lose their way for a while. John Fegan took over the free taking duties from the injured* Aidan Carr and two frees from Fegan with a point from Daniel Hughes left Down 0-05-0-03 ahead after 25 minutes. Longford hit back with a couple of points, before Jamie O`Reilly nudged Down ahead with a point . Paul Murphy was then  yellow carded and Longford equalised from the free before Fegan put Down ahead again with another free to leave Down ahead by a point. Declan Rooney replaced Murphy on the stroke of half time with the score at 0-07 – 0-06.
Down had the ball in the net within a minute of the restart, but the referee who had a very poor game, wrongly ruled the goal out for a "square ball", when in fact Paul McComiskey was well outside the square. A John Fegan free and a point from O`Reilly kept Down ahead by 2. Luke Howard, who had been replaced by D Rafferty in the first half (blood sub), then came on for McGovern. Down wrapped up the game with scores from Fegan, Boyle who had a pretty good game, Hughes and Kearney. Cathal Magee and Brendan McArdle replaced Murtagh and Fegan in the dying minutes.
This was a very disjointed performance from Down. Although  they lorded it at midfield with good displays from both Kearney and especially Gordon in the second half they squandered a lot of possession and quite a few scoring chances. (11 wides in total) McComiskey showed well for the ball, but he needs the likes of Coulter playing alongside him to punish opposing defences. Definitely not a great game, despite what you will read in tomorrows Irish News. At times Down were playing with a 2 man forward line which seems strange when we have better forwards than defenders.
The starting team was McVeigh, McGovern, Murphy, Howard, Davey, McKernan, Garvey, Gordon, Kearney, O`Reilly , Boyle, Fegan, Murtagh, Hughes, McComiskey.

[western exile]

The game was not a classic mostly due to the whistle of the Limerick man in the middle. He had a poor outing.   However, Down did constantly try to play good football in circumstances which were not conducive for it.  In the first half Longford were winning most of the breaking ball, some of it broken by Steven Kearney in midfield but cleaned up by a Longford player. The Down players were also being bullied off the ball on numerous occasions, some of it illegally.  On top of this they hit 7 wides. In spite of all this they led by 0-7 to 0-6 at half time. The score line flattered Longford as Down were the better team, but were not allowed to play.
The second half was different.  Down players were tougher in possession and did not let Longford dominate any sector of the field. Dan Gordan, who had been quiet in the first half, burst into life. Both he and Kearney dominated midfield and kept a supply of ball to their teammates. And the wide tally was reduced to 3. 
A deserved win by the better team. The score line could have been more as a perfectly legal looking goal was disallowed for square ball.  And Paul McCommiskey got a point with a goal shot when a pass to a Ronan Murtagh who was unmarked in front of gaol would have been the better option.
A great performance all round by Fagan who is playing his way onto the championship team.

[downredblack]

How did Hugh Davey get on ?

[Dubh driocht]

Davey did OK.Huge improvement in attitude from Cavan game and Dan looked a lot fitter.Kearney is a much better bet than the honest but limited Jackie. John Fagan was my MOM- apart from Cavan , he has consistently got through loads of unseen work.The most important thing to come out of Pearse Park was the two points. Onwards and upwards !

[Leo]

A welcome win but a laboured performance against a very poor Longford team. MOM by a country mile was Dan Gordon who was unstoppable in the second half even after a bad looking injury. I agree Feagn had his best ever game in the jersey but often he goes just so far and then is smitten by the current Down bug of turning back from goal and feeding a noinesense ball 20 yards or more behind him ( Boyle ids the master of this soccer-0inspired style?). Having said that I am not convinced by Fegan he might make me change my mind with this improvement in performance.

The ability of Hughes to ball carry from deep was also a factor in creating chances - and frees -  in the 2nd half and I wonder if McComiskey should also come on to the ball from the half line as he got boxed into the corner far too often. Maybe if Benny was on the square this is the way to play these two boys' speed.

McGovern put in a very brave and determined first half, Rafferty who came on gave it everything as well, but Garvey and McKernan were all at sea for most of the game.

Still, a comfortable enough win but Limerick will give us a much stiffer test.