High Fielding during the Minor match

Down minor footballers gave the Mourne county a timely boost at the start of the football championship when they travelled to Kingspan-Breffni Park, Cavan on Sunday, 13th of May and came away with a deserved victory on a scoreline of 1-10 to 2-5 over the home side.

The teams had already met in competitive fare this season at the same venue in the Ulster Minor Football League, when the Down side got in for first-half goals and held out for a narrow one point win which was to deny the Breffni side a league final place.
On Sunday last it was Down who started the game better and three early points left them ahead by 0-3 after four minutes play. Then Cavan got the break they needed when Niall Smith scored the opening goal of the game in the 7th minute.

It was anticipated that the home side would kick on from that. However, it was not to be as the Down side regrouped well and they only trailed at the break by 2-1 to 0-6 – the Cavan goal coming in the closing five minutes from Swanlinbar clubman, Mark Cunningham.

Down upped their performance in the second-half although playing against a strong wind and an early goal from Eamon Toner settled them and gave them the confidence to go on and win the game by two points in the end.

For periods in that second-half the home side looked capable of overtaking their opponents, but some bad decision making in front of goal and rank poor shooting – they kicked 17 wides to Down’s 5 – meant that a Cavan minor side once again failed to live up to their promise and departed from the championship in their first outing. To their credit they battled to the end, and with a little bit of luck could have snatched a draw.

Down on the otherhand seemed to grow in confidence as the second-half progressed. They held their composure, and their game plan of spreading the Cavan defence and taking the full-back out of position worked, although it must be said that the Cavan number three was one of the best players afield.

Despite this win this Down side are far from the finished article. However, in this game and indeed in the recent minor league – they reached the final only to lose to Derry – they showed they are a side with plenty of potential and are improving with every outing.

They possess some nifty attacker and the spine of the side is strong down the middle. No doubt manager, Mark Turley and his management team won’t be carried away with this success. Cavan on the day missed too many scoring opportunities, but that is not to say that the Down defence were on their game and never allowed them the time and space to settle on the ball and take their scores.

It will be interesting to see how this Down side fares in their next outing against Monaghan – a Farney side who fancy their chances this season in the provincial championship.

No doubt the Down supporters will be hoping that this is the start of another successful minor journey. However, manager Mark Turley knows what it takes to win All-Ireland and indeed provincial titles, and will be looking no further than their next match in the coming weeks against Monaghan.

Cavan – Alan O’Meara; Raymond Farrelly, Rory Dunne, Oisin Moynagh; Daniel Graham, Thomas Reilly, James McAvoy; Barry Watters, James McEnroe; Niall Smith (1-0), Declan McKiernan, Adrian Cole; Mark Cunningham (1-2), Conor Smith (0-1), Martin Dunne (0-1, one free).
Subs – Eugene Keating (0-1) for Declan McKiernan; Joshua Hayes for Raymond Farrelly; David Givney for Martin Dunne; Michael Reilly for James McEnroe; Niall McDermott for Niall Smith.

Down – Kieran Gordon; Conor Doyle, Ryan Mallon, Niall Higgins; Ryan Boyle, Michael Higgins, Ryan McGovern; Ruairi Digney (0-2), Eamon Toner (1-1); Paul Devlin (0-5, three frees), Conor Poland, Ben O’Reilly; Christopher Killen (0-1), Sean Murdock, Paul MacPolin (0-1).
Subs – Colm Flanagan for Paul MacPolin; Owen Pyers for Sean Murdock; Damien Turley for Eamon Toner.

Referee – Fergal Cleary from Fermanagh.