Tailteann Cup Group 4, round three
Down 2-22 Offaly 3-13
DOWN completed their round-robin campaign with a 100 per cent record in this dead-rubber at Kingspan Breffni yesterday.
With Conor Laverty’s side already guaranteed here top spot and Offaly already eliminated after disastrous defeats to London and Limerick there was little at stake and with the pressure off the sides produced a high-scoring and free-flowing encounter.
Laverty used the opportunity to give fringe players some much-needed minutes and one of those, Gareth McKibben, opened the scoring in the first minute.
The next score was the first goal of the game and it came for the underdogs, Daire McDaid netting, but the Mournemen scored the next six points to take command – Danny Magill, Conor McCrickard, James Guinness and Paul Quinn among the scorers.
That four-point lead was stretched to seven by the interval as Down racked up an impressive 16 points to Offaly’s 1-6.
Danny Magill opened the scoring in the second half and Down looked to be in cruise control but by the midway point of the second half the Faithful side had pulled level thanks to goals from Cormac Egan and John Furlong and the game remained in the balance approaching full-time.
However, Down sealed the points as Oisin Savage goaled in the 69th minute and Ryan Magill added another with the last kick of the game.
Both sides finished with 14 men as Eoin Carroll of Offaly was red-carded early in the second half and Down’s Jonny Flynn received two yellows late on.
