Liam Connor Cup final
Down 1-10 Westmeath 0-10
By Peter McGrath Jnr
DOWN’S goal at U-20 level this year would certainly have been to target an “A” competition but, when results conspired against progress in the Ulster Championship and they dropped to “B” level, they resolved to do all they could to win the Liam Connor Cup and on Saturday afternoon they did just that.
Joint manager Paul McCartan said after the game, “we were unfortunate against Monaghan and not getting into the A quarter final but I spoke to the players that night and told them basically we had three games to win an All-Ireland and I asked them how many had won All-Ireland’s and nobody could put their hands up so it’s good for them and it’s also good for Down football”.
On the day, though throw in was delayed by 15 minutes as Down were caught in traffic, the game began in perfect style for the Mourne side with Ryan Quinn playing Senan Carr in for the opening point inside a quarter of a minute.
The game hit a slightly rocky spell thereafter as Westmeath reeled off a trio of unanswered points. Jack Duncan levelled matters from fairly short range while longer distance efforts from Ronan Murray and Liam Daly left the Lake County’s supporters in good mood.
Down got back into the swing of things with another point from Carr. His clubmate Dan Rafferty embarked on a long run that took in five solos before his angled fist pass reached Donal Scullion and he flicked it straight to Carr who’s snapshot effort squirmed inside the post and reduced the deficit to one.
Read the full report in the current issue of the Mourne Observer.