FL2: Johnston saves Down's bacon

Monday 3rd April 2017

Cork 1-10
Down 0-13

An injury-time free from Jerome Johnston ensured Down’s survival in Division 2 this afternoon as they drew with Cork at Pairc Ui Rinn.  

Jerome and his brother Ryan proved the heroes for the Mourne men, combining for three points in the closing stages that rescued a late result which sees them stay up on score difference

Cork looked to have done enough after hitting the net in the first-half and then holding off an early second-half rally from their opponents, but Down’s sheer resolve remained high until the very end.

Three Colm O’Neill frees and a John O’Rourke point nudged the Leesiders ahead by 0-4 to 0-1 early on, with Jerome Johnston having pointed the first score of the afternoon for the visitors.

Caolan Mooney and Darragh O’Hanlon (free) cut the gap to one before O’Neill made it a two-point game again and the Mourne men looked to be in some trouble when Ruairí Deane hit their net after latching on to a superb pass from Paul Kerrigan.

A pointed long range free from Down ‘keeper Michael Cunningham left it at 1-6 to 0-5 at half-time and the northerners would fly out of the traps for the second-half.

Scores from Barry O’Hagan, Mooney and Shea Millar looked like making it a whole new game but an equaliser was hard to come by and the pendulum swung back the way of the Rebels via points from Kerrigan and Keane.

Down boss Eamonn Burns sent on Mark Poland to sharpen things up a bit in attack, with salient scores from Jerome Johnston (2) and Ryan Johnston to follow, making it 1-10 to 0-10 after Kerrigan and O’Rourke had struck the Leesiders’ last two scores.

It left Down needing three points in the closing 10 minutes for survival and after Ryan Johnston’s second, his brother Jerome nailed a pressure ‘45’ a minute from regulation.

The latter got the opportunity for his fifth score of the afternoon with a difficult free from the right flank and he made no mistake in sending it over to make sure Down would still be operating in Division 2 in 2018.

Cork - K O’Halloran; M Shields, Tom Clancy, K Crowley; C O’Driscoll, J Loughrey, S Cronin; A O’Connor, R Deane (1-1); K O’Driscoll, J O’Rourke (0-1), I Maguire; C O’Neill (0-6, 4f), P Kelleher, P Kerrigan (0-2). Subs: A Walsh for A O’Connor, D Og Hodnett for P Kelleher, Barry O’Driscoll for I Maguire, J O’Sullivan for Tom Clancy, J McLoughlin for M Shields, D O’Connor for J O’Rourke.

Down - M Cunningham (0-1f); D O’Hagan, B McArdle, R McAleenan; D O’Hanlon (0-1f), C McGovern, J Flynn; C Mooney (0-2), P Turley; K McKernan, C Maginn, R Johnston (0-2); B O’Hagan (0-1), J Johnston (0-5, 4f, 1'45), S Millar (0-1). Subs: S Dornan for D O’Hagan, J Murphy for J Flynn, M Poland for C Maginn, A Davidson for S Millar.

Referee - J Molloy.