Down bow out of Championship at the hands of Tyrone

After losing to Westmeath last weekend, it was do or die for Down against Tyrone at Pairc Esler today, but sadly it wasn't to be with a three-point defeat sealing their exit from this year's All-Ireland Intermediate Championship.

Tyrone were looking to avenge their defeat to Down, after extra-time, in the Ulster semi-final and while there was little between the teams throughout this hard-fought match, a second half goal proved the difference in the end.

“We are disappointed,” said Down manager Colm Donnelly after he and coach Mark Poland consoled their players in the post-match team huddle.

“We knew it was always going to be a tough game but we were well in it till the very end. We probably just lost our discipline at the end of the first half and they got a couple of easy frees. They did get some easy frees and that probably gave them two or three extra points but we probably didn't get enough scores in the first half with the breeze and that was an issue. But it was always going to be a close game. They're a good team and we're a good team. We knew that this group was going to be very tough to get out of because there are three good teams in it and there was always going to be one good team not going to come out of it and unfortunately it was us – that's just the way it is.”

There was nothing to separate the teams at the break with the game tied 1-3 to 0-6. Down scored their goal from the penalty spot, via Burren player Eimear Fitzpatrick who also secured two of their three points, For Tyrone, all but one of their six were from frees.

The first score of the game came from the dead ball with a somewhat soft free converted by Niamh O'Neill. She won another moments later but this time missed the target.

Down struggled to keep their hands on the ball in the early stages but Donnelly's side soon settled into the game after hitting a maximum.

It came from a good delivery in midfield by captain Clara Mulvenna to Niamh Rice who played a nice one-two with Niamh McGrath before being knocked to ground for a penalty. Fitzpatrick stepped up and made no mistake firing past Tyrone's diving keeper, Amelia Coyle, and she booted a free over the bar a minute later to give Down a 1-1 to 0-1 lead with 10 minutes on the clock.

The Mourne ladies were playing with a fair wind at their back in the first half and kept their noses in front with another Fitzpatrick point that sailed high over the bar.

Tyrone responded with a point from Aoife Horisk, that could have been a goal and another O'Neill free on 18 minutes. Ciara McCreanor landed a lovely point at the other end to make it a three point game again 1-3 to 0-3 but the last three scores of the half went the way of the Red Hands, with frees from Horisk and a brace from O'Neill, while Down were reduced to 14 players a minute before the short whistle, as Natalie Burns was yellow carded.

Fitzpatrick opened the second half with a converted free to nudge Down in front again but Sorcha Gormely had the ball in the net for Tyrone within three minutes to put her side two to the good 1-3 to 1-6.

Fitzpatrick converted another free in reply but O'Neill cancelled that out with a lovely point from play and Gormley added another to stretch Tyrone's lead to three again, 1-5 to 1-8.

Niamh King narrowed the margin to two as Burns got ready to enter the fray but before she did, Horisk had nailed another free.

The game had opened up into an end-to-end battle with traded scores between Fitzpatrick (free) and Gormley, with a nice score from play, but King replied to narrow the deficit again, 1-8 to 1-10 with 44 minutes on the clock.

Tyrone pulled away after that however, with three in a row from Slaine McCarroll, Gormley and Horisk to lead 1-13 to 1-8 with eight minutes of normal time remaining.

There was an exciting finish in store however, as once again Rice was hauled to ground in the penalty area and Aine Smyth, who was only on the field as a sub, fired into the net.

Time was not on Down's side though, as Aoife McGahan widened Tyrone's lead to three again with two minutes remaining and while Down had a chance to nab a goal from a free launched into the square by Smyth, she couldn't find a player. Down did get their hands on the ball again before the full-time whistle and had one more chance from a free launched goal-ward in the fifth minute of stoppage time, but the ball was once again won by Tyrone who had done enough and held on for a 1-14 to 2-8 victory, putting an end to Down's All-Ireland campaign.

“The season in general had it's highs and lows,” said Donnelly of his first year at the helm with Down Ladies.

“We brought a lot of young players through this year and some of them performed very well today - goalkeeper Cara Bradley, Niamh McGrath, Cara McCreanor, and Shauna Fettes is just in too, so we have a lot of good young players in this year. We're disappointed because we felt we could have won the game today, there wasn't much in it.”

He agrees that Tyrone scoring three points in a row to pull away in the last 10 minutes didn't help, “But their goal killed us today and we couldn't come back from that. We'll have a game now in a couple of week's probably against Offaly in a relegation semi-final, so we'll go back training on Tuesday night like we usually do. At the end of the day, we knew we had to win this game today. We should have won last week and we didn't. It's just the highs and lows of Championship football, there's no room for mistakes. In fairness to the girls, they played really, really well there. It was a good game of football and I felt Tyrone just had a wee bit of luck in front of goal and we didn't, but it's fine margins.”

MATCH STATS

Down: Cara Bradley; Aimee Greene, Ciara McCreanor (0-1), Niamh McClory; Ciara Mulvenna, Natalie Burns, Erin Sands; Meghan Doherty, Aoife Laverty; Eimear Fitzpatrick (1-5,4f), Laoise Duffy, Niamh McGrath; Niamh King (0-2), Niamh Rice, Vivienne McCormack

Subs: Shauna Fettes for McCormack (47mins), Eva Hicks for Fitzpatrick (50mins), Aine Smith for Duffy (52mins)

Tyrone: Amelia Coyle; Jayne Lyons, Grainne McKenna, Eimear Quinn; Slaine McCarroll (0-1), Michaela Moore, Claire Canavan; Aoibhinn McHugh, Meabh Mallon; Elle McNamee, Sorcha Gormley (1-3) Aoife Horisk (0-4,2f); Niamh O'Neill (0-5,4f), Cara McCrossan, Ciara Colton

Subs: Caitlin Campbell for Moore (H-T), Aine Grimes for McNamee (44mins), Aoofe McGahan (0-1) for McCrossan (50mins), Emer McCanny for Canavan (57mins)

Referee: Anthony Marron (Monaghan)