UlsterU20 Football Championship preliminary round: Down 2-15 Femanagh 0-7
Down began their quest to retain their Ulster U20 title in earnest under the bright lights of Pairc Esler with a comprehensive 2-13 to 0-7 victory over Fermanagh.
Having Kilcoo joint-captain Conor Laverty fresh from winning the All-Ireland Club Championship as manager can only be a good thing and it showed on the field of play, with a slick performance against the team that Down beat in the Ulster semi-final last year.
It was a dream start for Down with a long diagonal ball from Oisin Savage bouncing over a Fermanagh defender for Adam Crimmins who drilled into the net. The former followed up with a point and that signalled the dominance that the Mourne county would enjoy from that stage on.
Callum Rodgers made it 1-2 before Fionan O’Brien opened Fermanagh’s account from a free in the 10th minute.
Down continued to run riot, however, with an impressive display of speed, discipline and accuracy for the most part and they led 1-7 to 0-2 at the break.
Down made Fermanagh wait before the second half got underway but it was back to business for Laverty’s men with Jack Murtagh adding to the two frees he scored earlier and Jack Murtagh tagging on a free to make it 1-9 to 0-2.
A brace of frees from O’Brien made it 1-9 to 0-4 but the visitors were no match in the scoring department and the longer the game went on and hope waned, the worse their accuracy became.
Down led by 11 points, 1-13 to 0-5, with five minutes left on the clock but they put the icing on the cake on 28 minutes when Murtagh sent a ball across the face of goal. Fermanagh keeper Ethan McCaffrey gathered but spilled the ball and Savage was on hand to finish to the net.
The four minutes of stoppage time was merely a formality and despite Diarmuid King coming close to a goal that may have put a gloss on the scoreline, Down marched into the Ulster quarter-final against Tyrone.
Down C Grant; T Hardy, P McCarthy (0-1),
MD Hynes; H Magill, R Campbell, C Rodgers (0-1); O Murdock (0-2), S Donegan; Z Murdock, O Cunningham, P Clancy (0-1); J Murtagh (0- 3, 0-2 frees), A Crimmins (1-0), O Savage (1-5, 0-2 free)
Subs A Cole for Donegan (7), Senan Carr for O Murdock (46), J Tunney for Crimmins(46),
J Kane for McCarthy (52)
Yellow cards J Murtagh (43)
Fermanagh E McCaffrey; A Jones, R McDonnell, R McNally; M Flannagan, F O’Brien (0-6 frees),
D Owens; O Farry, C Murphy; O Murphy, D King,
C Burns; C McGovern, C Leonard, J McDade
Subs O Johnston (0-1) for Leonard (14),
U O’Reilly for Burns (H-T), C Farry for McGovern (38), R McKenna for Owens (45), A Durnien for Murphy (52)
Yellow cards R McNally (7)