National Football League Division Three final: Down 0-21 Wexford 0-18 (after extra-time)
HAVING done so much of the hard work during the past couple of months, Down came mightily close to leaving this league campaign with nothing but frustration and regret.
Back-to-back promotions, the exhilarating high of last week’s dramatic late, late show against Westmeath, Wexford’s remarkable rise has been rightly celebrated.
Just five weeks on from a 10-point defeat at the hands of the same opponents, however, few were tipping the Yellowbellies to upset the odds at Croke Park on Saturday night.
It looked like going to script, too, as Down led by three at half-time.
It could, should, have been more had Odhran Murdock not seen a weak 12th minute penalty saved by Darragh Brooks, just two minutes after the Burren man lashed just wide of the Wexford goalkeeper’s posts after a trademark burst through the middle.
Those misses grew in significance as, when Paraic Hughes popped over with 10 minutes left - putting John Hegarty’s side 0-17 to 0-14 ahead - Wexford were in complete control. Utterly dominant in a second half when Down went 23 minutes without a score, it was theirs for the taking.
All of a sudden it was Wexford, and not Down, dreaming of All-Ireland days in the sun.
The swing moment came less than a minute after Hughes’s fifth point.
Mark Rossiter’s effort at the posts fell well short, full-back Gavin Sheehan got a fist to the ball and it looked ready to ripple Ronan Burns’s net – only for the ball to clip the outside of the post.
“I suppose the one regret we’ll have when we sit down and look at it, we maybe didn’t make our dominance pay,” said Hegarty.
“We didn’t show it on the scoreboard because we came from three down to being three up and, while that’s impressive, it wasn’t a reflection of how the play was.
“I felt we were better than that even in the second half.”
Sheehan’s near miss was the get out of jail card, and perhaps the wake-up call, Down needed.
Ceilum Doherty brought the famine to an end with five left to play.
The cool heads were in red and black now; battle-hardened after years of similarly tough, tense, nothing-to-split them encounters.
Substitute Liam Kerr cut inside and clipped over with his left – one-point game. All of a sudden the Down support were in full voice and, within minutes, so was Ryan McEvoy.
Roaming forward, he collected the ball around the edge of the arc and engineered a yard before curling over the bar.
The roar that followed from the Kilcoo man was borne of sheer relief.
Having run down the clock to work a final shot before the hooter sounded, Tom Close was anything but when his wild effort sailed harmlessly wide of the posts to ensure that, just like the Division Four final earlier, this one was headed to extra-time.
It was here, though, that Down’s know-how told.
“We approached extra-time with cool and calm heads,” said boss Conor Laverty.
“We chatted about different times, even from our own experiences, that we’ve been in that position and how best to handle it…”
In the 20 extra minutes, the Yellowbellies managed just one score to Down’s four – though that doesn’t quite tell the whole story.
Three times the ball bobbed about the Mourne County square, crying out to be finished to the net, only for Down men to throw their bodies in the way having nudged ahead on the scoreboard.
Ruairi McCormack, brought on at the start of extra-time, added a brilliant block to an earlier score as they saw it out – just.
“It was an array of emotions from the start of that game to the end of it, but I’m just delighted to come out on the right side of the result,” added Laverty.
“The boys showed real character then to claw themselves back into the game… whenever the chips were down - and probably the game was very close to being gone at a stage, the way Wexford were controlling the ball - I felt whenever we added a wee bit of energy and a wee bit of aggression to our play, not sitting off them as much, we probably forced their hand.”
Having given a good account of themselves last summer, in a first All-Ireland appearance since 2019, Down made no bones about their determination to return to that stage at the first time of asking.
Kildare’s relegation from Division Two muddied the waters, as the Tailteann Cup champions are already guaranteed an All-Ireland spot.
But by winning on Saturday night, and claiming the Division Three title, the Mournemen have given themselves the best possible chance – even if the threat of a lower-ranked provincial finalist could scupper those plans, unless Down go on to reach an Ulster final.
Laverty, though, was just happy that his men had taken care of their end of the bargain; whatever happens from here is in the hands of others.
“You can’t guarantee it, but the one thing you can park is that we’ve done our job; we’ve done everything in our power to put ourselves in the best position.
“That was the one thing that was always in the back of our minds - that we wanted to be back in Sam Maguire football.
“The boys experienced that atmosphere, experienced that buzz, playing against the best players in the country and that’s what we set out at the start of the year to do - to get promotion out of Division Three, but always having an eye on Kildare and what was happening in Division Two.
“With that happening last week [Kildare’s relegation], it probably raised the stakes a bit, and maybe the players felt that bit of expectation in the second half and it weighed on them a small bit… I’m not sure.
“Because I know this group really had put a lot of emphasis on getting back to Sam Maguire football.”
First up, though, is the small matter of the Ulster championship, and a trip to Letterkenny to take on defending champions Donegal.
Needless to say, a serious step up in class awaits - and Down will need to be several levels above what they showed on Saturday.
“I don’t think that performance would do against Donegal now,” said the Kilcoo man.
“I don’t think it would take a rocket scientist to come up with that answer.
“Going to Letterkenny, I don’t think there’d be anybody in the country that’ll be expecting a Down win.
“So whenever you’re in that position, you can go there, really play with freedom and have a real go at it.”
Down: R Burns; P Laverty, R McEvoy 0-1, P Fegan; C Rogers, S Annett, R Magill; D Guinness 0-2, O Murdock 0-5 (1tp); M Rooney 0-1, C Doherty 0-4, P Brooks; J McGeough, P Havern 0-5 (3f), A Crimmins 0-1. Subs: P McCarthy for Magill (44), L Kerr 0-1 for Rooney (47), E Brown for Rogers (52), T Close for McGeough (61), R McCormack 0-1 for Brooks (70, ET), M Rooney for Annett (80), R Carr for Havern (87)
Wexford: D Brooks; S Doyle, G Sheehan, D Furlong 0-1; L O’Connor, E Nolan, E Porter; L Coleman 0-1, N Hughes 0-1; P Hughes 0-5 (1tp), C Kehoe, J Higgins 0-2; S Ryan, M Rossiter 0-6 (2tp), S Nolan 0-1. Subs: G Malone for E Nolan (11), C Hughes for Ryan (50), M Kinsella for S Nolan (61), T Byrne for Kehoe (65), R Brooks 0-1 for P Hughes (80), S Barden for Doyle (85), D Shanley for C Hughes (87)
Blood sub: M Kinsella for Rossiter (52-57)
Black card: E Porter (11)
Referee: T Murphy (Galway)
Att: 9,303
