Christy Ring Cup round one: Down 2-24 Roscommon 1-20
LOW on numbers, low on confidence and confronting more commitment issues than Tiger Woods at a pool party, the mood music around Down hurling wasn’t good coming into Saturday’s Christy Ring Cup clash with Roscommon.
For the first 35 minutes in Ballycran, they looked like a team still suffering a hangover from their last-gasp Ulster Championship semi-final defeat to Armagh two weeks previous.
As they trudged off at the break, lucky to be just three behind, it was make-or-break time.
Boss Marty Mallon had sounded the war drums in the days before, decrying the loss of key men either through injury or lack of interest. He also hailed the backbone of those who had crossed the white line week in, week out during a tough League campaign.
Take Michael Hughes for example. The Ballycran full-back only touched down in Dublin at 9am that morning after a flight from New York. He headed straight up the road, arrived at his home pitch 15 minutes into the game before coming on as a 53rd minute sub for Andrew Bell.
And it was during the second half when Mallon’s words rang true as Down dug in and turned the tide in their favour, scoring 1-13 to Roscommon’s measly four point return in the final 30 minutes. It wasn’t always pretty, but they got the job done.
“It took us half an hour to get going. You could see in the warm-up even, we were a bit flat,” said Mallon.
“But we had a good go at it at half-time. You can talk about tactics or whatever but the bottom line was, do you want to stay in the Christy Ring next year or do you want to go into a play-off here?
“There’s a lot of people kicking us around the county at the minute – players and stuff who should be here. There’s a lot of people’s letting us down and it’s time to push their nose into it.”
The Rossies, relegated from Division 2B of the National League last month after a winless campaign, certainly didn’t start like a team that was feeling fragile.
Having stayed in Belfast the night before, they were out on the grass before midday. One super-fan had left Galway at 5.30am that morning to ensure he was there well before throw-in.
This gentleman was, by my reckoning anyway, the sum total of the Roscommon travelling support.
Yet he was clapping like a baby seal throughout the first 35 minutes as the Connacht men took the game to their hosts, leading for the majority, with Shane Curley giving a free-taking exhibition in the early exchanges.
Down rallied briefly when the impressive Malachy Magee left three chasing Roscommon defenders in his wake before rifling to the top corner of the net, but the Ardsmen were disjointed otherwise.
Indeed, it took the Rossies just over a minute to repay the favour, burly full-forward Naos Connaughton on hand to flick into the net after Down goalkeeper Stephen Keith had produced a superb save.
That put the visitors a point up after 22 minutes, but by the interval that lead had been extended to three – 1-13 to 1-10 – and it could have been even greater had they taken some of the goalscoring opportunities that regularly presented themselves late in the half.
“We only finished with one goal but we could have had five so you wouldn’t be happy with that,” admitted boss Johnny Kelly. “We didn’t make it count when he had the chances.”
When their lead increased to five early in the second half, Roscommon threatened to pull away.
That was until Mallon delved into his bag of tricks and threw a bit of ‘Magic’ dust on Down, the introduction of the 6”6 Gareth Johnston – just as it had done in their League victory over Roscommon – proving a huge turning point.
Within two minutes he had won a free, and 60 seconds later he broke the ball down for Eoghan Sands who was fouled as he advanced on goal.
Trailing by three, it felt like a potentially defining moment when Paul Sheehan blazed his penalty wide, but the Down support needn’t have worried.
With Sheehan unerring from frees all afternoon, he kept his head and kept the scoreboard ticking over as the Rossies lost their discipline late on.
Down’s second goal in the 58th minute gave them some breathing space, a long puck forward from Conor Woods bouncing in the square, with Sands getting the slightest of touches to send it over the head of Roscommon goalkeeper Noel Fallon.
The Ardsmen added a further six points to seal the deal, and restore some much-needed confidence to a team still licking its wounds after a difficult Spring.
Down: S Keith;, S Ennis, J McManus, A Bell; C O’Prey (0-1, free), C Woods (0-1), M Ennis; S Nicholson, D McManus; C Mageean, M Magee (1-2), D Hughes (0-1); E Sands (1-1), P Sheehan (0-14, frees), O McManus (0-1). Subs: G Johnston (0-1) for S Nicholson (42), M Hughes for A Bell (53), G Hughes (0-1) for O McManus (53)
Yellow cards: C Mageean (31)
Roscommon: N Fallon; P Nolan, P Kellehan, A Moore; M Beirne, P Kelly (0-1), T Seale; S Curley (0-6, 0-5 frees), C Dolan; G Fallon, G Keenan (0-1), E Flanagan (0-2); J Coyne (0-2), N Connaughton (1-2), R Fallon (0-6, 0-5 frees). Subs: H Rooney for E Flanagan (48), G Egan for M Beirne (64), C Coyle for P Kellehan (64)
Yellow cards: H Rooney (55), P Kelly (57)
Ref: M Murtagh (Westmeath)
