Down Juniors Won the second match in their  Leinster Shield Campaign at home to Longford on a scoreline of 5-14 to 1-10.  Despite playing against the wind in the first half Down opened the scoring with a John Brown point and added 2 goals in quick succession from Eoin and Artie McGuiness to lead 2-1 to 0-0 after 5 minutes.  Longford were then awarded a succession of frees from which they scored 1-7.  Despite the wind advantage in the first half Longford managed only 1 point from play leaving the score 2-3 to 1-8 after 25 minutes.  Down rattled in 1-2 to regain the lead just before the break.

A Down scoring blitz, crowned by a point from Down’s man of the match Fintan Conway, increased Down’s lead to 10 points after 40 mins.  Longford only managed a further point from a free.  Down’s introduction of substitutes furthered the onslaught to run out easy winners in the end.

Down produced a good display and took all but 2 of their scores from play.  They may however count themselves unlucky to be given only 3 frees the entire match within their opponents 50 yard line.

Down’s next match in the Leinster Shield is at home to County Leitrim next Sunday.  The match is part of a double header with Down Seniors playing Dublin to mark the opening of Ballela’s new pitch.

Team:

G McMullan, R Kerr, B McAleenan, P McCusker, D McCusker (0-1), F Conway (Capt.) (0-2, 0-1 frees),J McGrath, J Murphy, D Doran (0-1), J Brown (0-3, 0-1 frees), K Courtney(0-2), D McGovern, J McCusker (2-2), A McGuinness (2-1), E McGuinness (1-1)

Subs used T Jennings for D McGovern, J O Kane (0-1) for D Doran, M Murphy for J McCusker, L Rice for R Kerr.