An additional time mark from substitute Jerome Johnstone was enough to hand fourteen man Down their second win in Division 3 of the Allianz Football League this season over Westmeath in Newry.
Paddy Tally can breathe a huge sigh of relief and can also claim credit too, after he took off Connaire Harrision for Johnstone, having only brought Harrison on in a three substitute change at half time.
The switch handed Down victory, one which didn’t look likely after Pat Havern was dismissed after 24 minutes on the clock and their goalkeeper Rory Burns having saved a penalty.
Jack Cooney’s Westmeath will rue the night as a missed opportunity on the whole as they dominated proceedings throughout, but they ultimately failed to make use of the extra man down the stretch.
When Ryan Johnstone scorched over the opening point of the game with Down’s first attack, he lulled the home attendance on the night into a false pretence; the possibility of a high scoring game.
The score would be the only time Down would take the lead in the contest until his brother kicked the winner late on.
With the middle third highly congested, chances were at a premium and an over-emphasis on lateral play made this an arm wrestling contest from that point on.
After 15 minutes and very little in the way of action, Down goalkeeper Rory Burns got a reaction from the home crowd when he got down low to save a Ger Egan penalty. Tommy McDaniels was fouled in the small parallelogram after superbly collecting a cross field pass from Frank Boyle.
Westmeath enjoyed majority of the possession now and bossed the aerial battle with Denis Corroon claiming numerous marks. His midfielder partner Sam Duncan then shot them into the lead 2-1 after a quarter of an hour with a score registered.
Matters got better for the visitors as Down full forward Havern was then sent off for getting in a tangle with Kieran Martin.
The game opened up slightly and Down did respond positively with a Donal O’Hare free to level after he was fouled by his marker Boidu Sayeh.
The tussle between two was a fascinating watch on a dour evening and was made even more intriguing when Sayeh came up the field to land a point.
The sides were level four times in the opening period but Ronan O’Toole struck a sweet point right on the half-time whistle to give the Midlanders a slight and deserved lead, 0-05 to 0-04.
The lively Ryan Johnstone added to his tally twice upon the resumption either side of an Ger Egan free but Sam Duncan also added to his tally on an impressive outing for the Lake County.
When Luke Loughlin put two points between the sides that gap looked to be enough to decide the outcome. Down looked to have exhausted their efforts to level via an O’Hare free and neat Conor Poland score from play having cleverly ghosted in behind the Westmeath rearguard.
However O’Hare shook off the shackles of Sayeh briefly for his first point from play to tee up Jerome Johnstone to knick the unlikeliest of wins for the much relieved Mourne men.
Down: Rory Burns; Darren O'Hagan, Ruairi Wells, Gerard Collins; Stephen Fegan, Colm Flanagan, Johnny Flynn; Caolan Cooney, Conor Poland (0-01); Conor Francis, Paul Devlin, Kevin McKernan (0-01); Ryan Johnston (0-03), Pat Havern, Donal O’Hare (0-04, 0-03f)
Subs used: Daniel Guinness for C Francis (35), Connaire Harrision for P Devlin (HT); Conor McGrady for J Flynn (HT), C Maginn for S Fegan (HT), Jerome Johnstone (0-01, 0-01m) for C Harrison (65)
Westmeath: Eoin Carberry; James Dolan (0-01), Ronan Wallace, Boidu Sayeh (0-01); Noel Mulligan,Frank Boyle, Killian Daly;Denis Corroon,Sam Duncan (0-02); Jamie Gonoud, Kieran Martin, Ronan O’Toole (0-01); Luke Loughlin (0-01), Tommy McDaniels, Ger Egan (0-03, 0-03f,).
Subs used: Callum McCormack for T McDaniels (37), Finbar Coyne for S Duncan (54), David Lynch for F Boyle (65), Joe Halligan for D Corroon (72).
Referee: David Gough (Meath)
