PAT Havern has been one of the shining lights during Down’s opening league games and former attacker John Clarke has been impressed with what he has seen from the Saval clubman in the early stages of the season.
In both of Down’s outings to date, Havern has top scored and has racked up an impressive personal haul of 0-19, making full use of the new two-point scoring system. Down fans will hope he carries that form into round three as they host Meath on Saturday evening.
Down have been scoring freely in the opening two rounds against Roscommon and Cork, putting together a total of 2-39 and while the new playing rules have played their part, the form of Havern has been a major contributing factor.
“The new rules seem to suit Down,” said Clarke.
“They have serious pace throughout the team, and they have scoring threats like Odhran Murdock and Pat Havern in particular has been the outstanding forward possibly in Ireland so far this year.
“He’s a real asset this year and he’s going to be well man-marked but he’s really stood up in the first two games and led the line so far for Down so a lot of the hopes on Saturday night will depend on Pat’s performance.
“He’s been their marque forward over the past couple of seasons but this year he seems to have brought a real consistency to his game; he seems to have really worked on his finishing and he certainly is a leader in that team at the minute.”
Saturday’s showdown with the Royal County is a big one for Conor Laverty’s side as they hope to fend off another fears of relegation and a return to Division Three. They currently have two-points on the board and another two would take them a step closer to safety.
“It’s finely balanced and both teams have had a win each and another win on Saturday evening would go a long way towards consolidating either teams place in Division Two, which the Down people would be fairly happy with,” added the new Teconnaught boss.
“It may be that it only takes one more win after this game to secure Division Two status and it’s bonus territory then, you can start looking up the table so the priority I’d say is getting six-points as soon as possible and after that anything can happen.”
Newry has been a real fortress during Conor Laverty’s reign as Down boss and their fine record at Páirc Esler has installed a belief in the team, “I think there’s 18 games unbeaten and that’s huge, Down have always had a pretty good record in Newry and it is a fortress.
“It’s nearly three years unbeaten in Newry now and they’ll want to keep that going. The Down public will come out in big numbers and get behind them because nothing beats a Saturday night in Newry under the lights.
“Down will be under no illusions of the challenge that Meath will bring. Meath have been a bogey team of Down’s really in recent years, even looking back at the Tailteann Cup final (2023), I’m not sure the last time Down beat Meath.
“They’re very physical around the middle and Down sometimes struggle to cope with that.
“Obviously, they have quality forwards inside as well so it’s an evenly balanced game but certainly I would hope that the home advantage would swing it for Down.”