Down’s powerful finish at Markievicz Park saw them confirm promotion to Allianz Football League Division 2 – with a game to spare – as they defeated Sligo 2-25 to 0-21 at a weather-lashed Sligo town venue.<\/p>\n
Classy full-forward Pat Havern bagged 1-10 for the unbeaten winners for whom wing-back Daniel Guinness was also brilliant – Guinness scored 0-06 in the second-half.<\/p>\n
Hard-working Sligo are not out of the woods in terms of tier three survival and may need to take something from their final game against Clare.<\/p>\n
Sligo came into this game – their third of four home fixtures – looking to bounce back from the previous round’s collapse away to Wexford.<\/p>\n
Down, with ex-Sligo boss Tony McEntee in their management team, arrived in the north-west on the back of a 100% record, having won all five of their games so far.<\/p>\n
In blustery conditions, with occasional hail showers, Sligo more than held their own against the in-form Down.<\/p>\n
By the 10th minute it was 0-04 to 0-03 to the hosts – among their early scores were efforts from Lee Deignan, who landed a two-pointer free, and David Quinn, who was making his first start of the campaign.<\/p>\n
Down, who settled on the scoreboard with well-taken scores from Ceilum Doherty, had a star in Pat Havern, who kicked 0-06 in that first-half, including a memorable two-pointer after 13 minutes.<\/p>\n
Down twice went close to scoring goals in the first-half but Miceal Rooney\u2019s effort was tipped onto the crossbar by Keelan Harte and later on a slick move was denied by Evan Lyons\u2019 last-gasp interception.<\/p>\n
Sligo who went in at the break a point to the good, 0-11 to 0-10, thanks to Alan McLoughlin\u2019s pointed free on the hooter.<\/p>\n
David Quinn was also impacting for the hosts – he kicked 0-03 in that opening half.<\/p>\n
The second-half was eventually dominated by Down, although Sligo had pushed a point ahead, 0-19 to 0-18, by the 56th minute when Lee Deignan pointed from play – this followed a fine two-pointer free for Alan McLoughlin.<\/p>\n
Down took charge when Ceilum Doherty goaled from close-range in the 57th minute and they outscored Sligo for the remainder, 1-07 to 0-02, with their second goal coming from the outstanding Havern.<\/p>\n
Sligo will reflect on a series of wides when they won possession from Down kickouts and Niall Murphy\u2019s goal shot was saved by Down custodian Ronan Burns when matters were still in the melting pot.<\/p>\n
Sligo: Keelan Harte, Evan Lyons, Nathan Mullen, Luke Casserly, Conor Sheridan, Jack Lavin (0-01), Canice Mulligan, Luke Towey (0-01), Gavin Gorman, Lee Deignan (0-04, 1tpf), Alan McLoughlin (0-6, 1tpf, 3f), Daire O\u2019Boyle (0-01), David Quinn (0-04), Cian Lally (0-01), Niall Murphy (0-03, 2f)<\/p>\n
Subs: Darragh Cummins for Gavin Gorman, 50; Tommy Ross for Nathan Mullen, 50; Pat Spillane for Cian Lally, 58; Mark McDaniel for David Quinn, 61; Paul Kilcoyne for Conor Sheridan, 66<\/p>\n
Down: Ronan Burns, Peter Fegan, Ryan McEvoy (0-01), Pierce Laverty, Callum Rogers, Shane Annett, Daniel Guinness (0-06, 1tp), Miceal Rooney, Odhran Murdock (0-02, 1 ’45\u2019), Ryan Magill, Ceilum Doherty (1-03), Adam Crimmins (0-02), Donal Scullion (0-01), Pat Havern (1-10, 5f), John McGeough<\/p>\n
Subs: Patrick Brooks for Ryan Magill, 20; Liam Kerr for John McGeough, 42; Patrick McCarthy for Miceal Rooney, 50; Barry O\u2019Hagan for Donal Scullion, 50; Eamonn Brown for Adam Crimmins, 67<\/p>\n
Referee: Jonathan Hayes (Limerick)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Down’s powerful finish at Markievicz Park saw them confirm promotion to Allianz Football League Division 2 – with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-348225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}