Down denied a share of the spoils in Cavan

There was heartbreak for Down under the lights at Kingspan Breffni Park on Saturday evening where they were denied a share of the spoils with Cavan when an orange flag wasn't raised.

Pat Havern almost rescued his side with an equalising two pointer with the last kick of the game – a monster curled effort from the right that swung in had the visiting supporters out of their seats in anticipation. The roar went up from the stands when the ball appeared to have snuck between the sticks, but the umpire thought otherwise and with that Cavan won by two, and with just two points on the board after five games the Mournemen moved a step closer to relegation.

In truth the damage was done in the first half with Cavan by far the better side and Down just unable to get to grips with the game. Turnovers and mistakes allowed the Breffni men get a strong foothold early on and they led by three pints before Down got off the mark. They only managed six points in the half while Cavan doubled that tally but a Miceal Rooney goal gave Down a lifeline and they only trailed by three points at the break.

Half-time was a welcome relief as Conor Laverty's side seemed to compose themselves and were much improved in the second half. A bright start put them into a two-point lead but Cavan nabbed a maximum midway through the half and while it was nip and tuck after that Cavan's big players dug in. Gearoid McKiernan scored a massive two-pointer and while Ryan McEvoy levelled and Down tried desperately to keep Cavan out in the dying minutes, two soft frees converted by Oisin Brady put the home side 1-20 to 1-18 to the good,

Havern came achingly close to levelling again with the aforementioned kick from beyond the arc. And while it wasn't to be, many felt that Down were robbed.

Laverty was understandably devastated after the match and understandably declined speaking to the waiting media but Down coach Mickey Donnelly graciously did.

“It would be disingenuous for us to talk about the last three or four minutes to be honest,” said Donnelly when asked about that fateful Havern effort and what came minutes earlier.

“The first five or six minutes will probably frustrate us more than the last three or four. Realistically we probably could have been 1-4 to 1-5 ahead in those first minutes and it's on those small margins coming in having scored only 1-6 at half-time. Under the present rules that's nowhere near enough. So we understood after that we had probably given ourselves a wee bit of a mountain to climb unfortunately. We showed a wee bit of character in the second half but we made too many basic errors unfortunately.”

Down will have to pull it out of the bag in their final two fixtures, firstly at home to bottom side Westmeath, who had a similar scenario on Sunday in their defeat to Meath, and then away to division leaders Monaghan.

For full match report and reaction see this week’s Newry Reporter in shops this Wednesday March 5