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\nDown captain Odhran Murdock lifts the cup<\/p>\n
Down are NFL Division 3 champions but just about after escaping to victory over Wexford following extra-time at Croke Park.<\/p>\n
Trailing by three points with only eight minutes of normal time remaining, the raging-hot favourites were clinging on by their fingernails.<\/p>\n
And Wexford came so close to finishing them off at that stage when Gavin Sheehan hit the woodwork with a dramatic goal chance.<\/p>\n
But the Model County simply couldn’t hold on and were reeled in by late, late Down scores from Ceilum Doherty, Liam Kerr and the outstanding Ryan McEvoy.<\/p>\n
That brought the game to extra-time and the Mourne men pulled clear in the additional 20 minutes, outscoring Wexford by 0-04 to 0-01.<\/p>\n
The battling win should secure Down’s place in this year’s All-Ireland SFC but it’s agony for Wexford who look set for another season in the Tailteann Cup.<\/p>\n
\nDown captain Odhran Murdock lifts the cup<\/p>\n
This was Down’s sign-off game before turning their attention to the glamour Ulster SFC opener against Donegal in Letterkenny on 26 April.<\/p>\n
But there was no danger of mistaking the Division 3 decider as a gentle tune-up with Wexford pushing the 2024 Tailteann Cup winners hard throughout.<\/p>\n
John Hegarty’s Slaneysiders, who secured promotion thanks to Se\u00e1n Ryan’s dramatic late match-winning goal against Westmeath last weekend, were immediately lively and led 0-06 to 0-04.<\/p>\n
Down finally ignited with a Doherty point to cut the deficit in half before winning a 12th-minute penalty when John McGeough was fouled by Eoin Porter.<\/p>\n
That was deemed a black card offence so Wexford lost Porter for 10 minutes though Down couldn’t take full advantage as Odhran Murdock’s penalty kick was expertly saved.<\/p>\n
Murdock drilled two early wides as well but Down couldn’t be contained for long and with Pat Havern starting to score for fun – he finished the half with 0-05 – they eventually got on top.<\/p>\n
Having missed from the spot, Murdock had no problem from outside the arc just minutes later when he boomed over a two-pointer.<\/p>\n
That score left Down three points up after 24 minutes and they were good value for their 0-13 to 0-10 advantage at the interval.<\/p>\n
But Wexford showed no signs of being overawed and when Mark Rossiter boomed over a two-point in the 42nd minute, it was back to a one-point game with Down just 0-14 to 0-13 ahead.<\/p>\n
![\"28](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/00242281-614.jpg\"\/)
\nTom Close reacts to a late missed opportunity<\/p>\n
Another Rossiter two-pointer left Wexford with a one-point lead that few expected with 20 minutes to go.<\/p>\n
Down boss Conor Laverty cut a frustrated figure on the sideline as his side wasted the few chances they created, going 26 minutes without a score.<\/p>\n
Another short Down kick-out that went astray ended with a Rossiter point that gave Wexford a fully merited 0-17 to 0-14 lead.<\/p>\n
But Wexford supporters looked on through their fingers as Down reeled off the game’s last three points to force extra-time.<\/p>\n
They kept the foot on the throttle with three more points in the first half of extra-time, from Guinness, sub Ruair\u00ed McCormack and Adam Crimmins.<\/p>\n
And they weren’t going to slip up from there.<\/p>\n
![\"28](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0024228d-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Down: Ronan Burns; Peter Fegan, Ryan McEvoy (0-01), Pierce Laverty; Ryan Magill, Shane Annett, Callum Rogers; Odhran Murdock (0-05, 1tp), Daniel Guinness (0-02); Patrick Brooks, Ceilum Doherty (0-04), Miceal Rooney (0-01); Adam Crimmins (0-01), Pat Havern (0-05, 0-02fs), John McGeough.<\/p>\n
Subs: Patrick McCarthy for Magill (44), Liam Kerr (0-01) for Rooney (47), Eamon Brown for Rogers (52), Tom Close for McGeough (61), Ruair\u00ed McCormack (0-01) for Brooks (70), Ross Carr for Havern (87).<\/p>\n
Wexford: Darragh Brooks; Shane Doyle, Gavin Sheehan, Dylan Furlong (0-01); Liam O’Connor, Eoghan Nolan, Eoin Porter; Liam Coleman (0-01), Niall Hughes (0-01); P\u00e1iric Hughes (0-05, 1tp), Cathal Kehoe, Jack Higgins (0-02); Se\u00e1n Ryan, Mark Rossiter (0-06, 1tp), Se\u00e1n Nolan (0-01).<\/p>\n
Subs: Glen Malone for Eoghan Nolan (11), Cian Hughes for Ryan (50), Michael Kinsella for Rossiter (52-57), Kinsella for Se\u00e1n Nolan (61), Tom Byrne for Kehoe (65), Robbie Brooks (0-01) for P\u00e1iric Hughes (80), Se\u00e1n Barden for Doyle (85), Donal Shanley for Cian Hughes (87).<\/p>\n
Referee: Thomas Murphy (Galway).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Down are NFL Division 3 champions but just about after escaping to victory over Wexford following extra-time at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-370628","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\/370628","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=370628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}