By Gareth McCullough
Down moved to the top of Division 3 with a well-deserved victory over Offaly in Newry.
Two second half goals from substitute Cory Quinn proved to be the difference between the sides, but in truth, Paddy Tally’s men were always the better outfit in windy conditions at Pairc Esler.
The omens weren’t good for the visitors who have never won in Down, and that poor run kept going against a Down side who won their fourth match in-a-row with Carlow away and Louth at home still to come.
Despite having the benefit of the strong wind in their favour throughout the majority of the first period, Down would have been disappointed to only go in two points to the good at half-time.
With Offaly content to sit back and break on the counter when they won possession, Down were only getting joy going forward when they broke the line at speed, and captain Darren O’Hagan was their main exponent of that in the opening 35 minutes.
He scored the first point of the game after collecting a Caolan Mooney pass, but Offaly, when they did get forward, were able to win frees from the whistle of a picky Anthony Nolan, and in Brendan Allen, they had a player who scored all four of his first half efforts from placed balls.
He scored either side of responses from Down’s Jerome Johnston and Mooney before a pair of quickfire efforts from Shane Horan edged the visitors in front for the first time, 0-04 to 0-03 with 22 minutes on the clock.
Donal O’Hare opened his account a minute later to level before Down really should have found a goal 60 seconds after that.
Offaly keeper Paddy Dunican misjudged a ball forward and Daniel Guinness should have palmed it into the empty net. He only managed to hit the post before grabbing the rebound to tee up Johnston, whose shot was superbly cleared off the line by the diving Paul McConway.
Down keeper Rory Burns stepped up to convert the resultant ’45 and after Allen had made it 0-05 apiece with another free, successive scores from Kevin McKernan, Mooney and an O’Hare free put Paddy Tally’s men 0-08 to 0-05 to the good.
Allen then knocked over another free to leave two between the sides going into the second period.
Peter Cunningham’s free cut the deficit to two early in the second period but a pair of O’Hare scores edged Down 0-10 to 0-07 in from 10 minutes in before the home side struck goal on 53 minutes.
A patient build-up saw Daniel Guinness turn well before finding substitute Cory Quinn and the Mayobridge forward cleverly sidestepped Dunican to slot home. O’Hare then added another free three minutes later to put Down into s strong 1-11 to 0-07 lead.
Substitute Niall McNamee converted for Offaly seven minutes from time, but it was only their second score of the half and their first in 23 minutes, with Down always in the ascendancy.
Allen and O’Hare then traded frees before the latter before the Offaly man converted his sixth and final placed ball of the night in stoppage, but it mattered little.
Down then added the icing on the cake as Quinn scored his second goal in stoppage time with an emphatic finish.
Down: Rory Burns (1’45; Gerard Collins, Ruairi Wells, Ryan McAleenan; Pierce Laverty, Colm Flanagan, Darren O’Hagan (0-01); Caolan Mooney (0-02); Johnny Flynn; Daniel Guinness, Conor Poland, Ryan Johnston; Jerome Johnston (0-01), Donal O’Hare (0-05, 3f), Kevin McKernan (0-01)
Subs: Cory Quinn (2-0) for Flynn (25), Conor Maginn for Collins (44), Ceilum Doherty for Jerome Johnston (55), Owen McCabe for Ryan Johnston (67), David McKibbin for Laverty (69)
Offaly: Paddy Dunican; Declan Hogan, Eoin Rigney, David Dempsey; Cian Donohoe, Johnny Moloney, Paul McConway; Eoin Carroll, Cathal Mangan; Shane Horan (0-02), Peter Cunningham (0-01, free), Niall Darby; Bernard Allen (0-06, all frees), Anton Sullivan, Ruairi McNamee
Subs: Niall McNamee (0-01) for Horan (40), Shane Tierney for Ruairi McNamee (55), Conor Carroll for Donohoe (61), Dan Molloy for Eoin Carroll (61), Nigel Bracken for Mangan (69)
Referee: Anthony Nolan (Wicklow)
