MOURNING WILL GO ON AS DOWN ARE HAMMERED

Monaghan 0-23

Down 2-7

BY PADDY TIERNEY MONAGHAN recovered from the concession of two goals, one either side of half-time, to defeat Down by 10 points in yesterday’s Ulster SFC quarter-final at Clones.

Caolan Mooney (inset) gave the Mourne side a lifeline at the end of the first half with an excellent goal while Pat Havern found the net on the restart as Down cut the gap to a point having been totally out-played.

Yet, it proved to be something of a false dawn for James McCartan’s side as Monaghan found their scores with ease and Seamus McEnaney’s side weren’t flattered by the winning margin.

Down were relegated to Division Three last month and expectations were extremely low going into the Championship campaign.

The game went to script for the majority of the first half, which was one-way traffic in Monaghan’s favour.

Jack McCarron continued where he left off in the League, helping himself to four points in the first 35 minutes, with 0-3 coming from play.

Gary Mohan was also proving a handful for a revamped Down defence.

None of their back six started their round seven loss to Clare last month and they looked disjointed at times.

Andrew Gilmore posted 2-17 in the League and he went off injured on the half-hour mark just when Down were struggling for scores. Monaghan had 11 different scorers in total with Beggan and their full-back line of Kieran Duffy, Conor Boyle and

Ryan Wylie all contributing to their 0-23 haul.

A bad day for the Mournemen was compounded when Tiarnan Rushe picked up a second booking late on. MONAGHAN: R Beggan (0-2, 0-1f, 0-1 45); Kieran Duffy (0-1), Conor Boyle (0-1), Ryan Wylie (0-1); Ryan McAnespie, Dessie Ward, Conor McCarthy (0-1); Darren Hughes, Niall Kearns; Andrew Woods (0-1), Kieran Hughes (0-1), Mícheál Bannigan; Jack McCarron (0-7, 0-2fs, 0-1m), Gary Mohan (0-3, 0-2fs), Conor McManus (0-4, 0-3fs). Subs: S Carey (0-1) for Bannigan (42), D Wylie for Duffy (54), K O’Connell for D Hughes (57), C Leonard for Kearns (61), S Jones for O’Connell (75).

DOWN: N Kane; P Fegan, B McArdle, D O’Hagan; R Magill, N McParland, R McCormack; C Mooney (1-0), O Murdock; R McEvoy, C Poland (0-1), B O’Hagan (0-1, 0-1 45); C Francis (0-1), A Gilmore (0-1, 0-1f), P Havern (1-1). Subs: R O’Hare for Gilmore (30), D Guinness (0-1) for Francis (40), A Doherty for McEvoy (50), T Rushe (0-1, 0-1f), G Collins for McArdle (60).

REFEREE: F Kelly (Longford).