Ciaran Sloan was South Down's Man of the match
scoring 2-9
South Down 4- 15 Cavan 0-9
South Down recorded their first
win in the National Hurling League Division
4 when they overcame a hard-working Cavan side
at Ballela. Man of the match was Kilclief’s
Ciaran Sloan who scored an impressive total
of 2-10, which included 2-4 from play.
Balella's Daniel Doran was superb at midfield.
He had the ball in the Cavan
net within two minutes and from then on he tormented
the Cavan defence with a fine display of attacking
play and free-taking. Aidan Brown added a second
goal on nine minutes to increase South Down’s
advantage. The remainder of the first half was
played through a heavy hail storm which dampened
the skill levels but not competitiveness.
At half-time South Down were ahead by 2-7 to
0-7, which included a fine point from Karl Maxwell.
South Down suffered a major
blow two minutes into the second half when Colm
O’Neill was given a straight red card.
But the 14 men raised their game and Down took
control of the match when manager Paddy Braniff
brought on fresh players to keep the pressure
on Cavan.
Substitute Eoin McGuinness
added a goal and a point and the scale of Down’s
superiority can be gauged by the fact that all
of Cavan’s scores came from frees. Any
hope of a Cavan victory vanished with 10 minutes
remaining when Cavan were also reduced to 14
men. South Down saw out the last few minutes
as Cavan’s fight dwindled.
Colm O'Neill had a fantastic first half but
was sent off in the second
In spite of the convincing win, South Down still
have to show their potential as a team. In the
first half they conceded too many frees in score-able
positions and looked slightly disjointed. Whilst
the sending off galvanised them in to action
in the second half they cannot afford to be
so lax against league leaders Fermanagh next
week. It’s a game they must win to keep
their play-off hopes alive.
Down: D Kearns, N Conway, B
McAleenan, P McCusker (A Higgins 67), J McGrath,
C O’Neill(red card 37), D McCusker (Capt),
D Doran, J Murphy, K Maxwell (J McCusker 55),
J Brown, T Jennings, A Brown, C Sloan, E Hardy
(E McGuinness, 50).
Scorers: C Sloan 2-10 (0-5 frees, 0-2 65s);
E McGuinness 1-1; A Brown 1-1; J Brown, K Maxwell
and D Doran 0-1 each.
