Meath in trouble as Down finally end long wait for a win
THE pressure eased on Down and manager Eamonn Burns when they ended a sequence of 14 straight defeat in League and Championship with a moraleboosting win over Meath at Pairc Esler last night.
Buoyed by an early goal that must have seemed like a gift from Heaven, the Mourne men battled to a deserved success to lift themselves off the bottom of the Division 2 table.
With just one win in three outings, the Royals find themselves in a difficult place, and while they came close in The Marshes, there was much to concern new boss Andy McEntee.
Down fans badly needed a boost, and their flagging spirits were lifted by a dream start to the game with a goal inside the opening minute. Darragh O’Hanlon sent in an enticing free from distance, and Joe Murphy rose to direct a fisted effort to the corner of the net.
The Royals rallied for Donal Lenihan to profit from Brian Sheridan’s sizeable presence as target man to notch a couple of scores, and by the 15th minute they had moved to within a point.
With Bryan Menton getting heavily involved around midfield and Brian Power pressing from deep, the Leinster men enjoyed territorial advantage, but failed to punish a Down defence playing with guts and determination, if a little short on organisation.
All they could manage for that spell of pressure was a delightfully struck James Toher free, and they paid the price for their lack of penetration when the home side swept forward to claim three points in the space of as many minutes, two of them from O’Hanlon frees.
Both sides were guilty of unforced errors, none worse than the stray clearance which gifted Conor Maginn a point.
Meath went 29 minutes without a score from play, before corner back Donal Keogan pushed forward to find the range, but that was cancelled out by Ryan Johnston and Aidan Carr, as the Down men took a 1-8 to 0-6 lead into the interval, and continued to benefit from Meath’s poor finishing, with Toher’s spectacular score all they had to show for another bright spell.
Conaill McGovern, Kevin McKernan and O’Hanlon made pressure count at the other end, but the introduction of fresh legs off the bench gave the visitors a lift, with substitute Bryan McMahon hitting the target in style.
Lenihan kept Andy McEntee’s men in touch with his accuracy from frees, but despite hitting a rash of bad wides, Down were beginning to sense light at the end of a painfully long and dark tunnel.
But they had to endure a nerveshredding finish. Meath captain Graham Reilly arrowed over his second point of the evening, and Lenihan went for goal from a 20 metre free deep into stoppage time, with Gerard McGovern deflecting his thundering effort over the bar.