Down keep the Faith with win over Offaly but Laverty not convinced with performance

Down may not have put a foot wrong yet in terms of results in their Allianz League Division 3 campaign, with Saturday’s victory over Offaly in Pairc Esler sealing their fourth win from four, but manager Conor Laverty wasn’t completely enamoured by what he saw.

"Overall we wouldn’t be that happy with our performance,” he said after the game.

“We knew this was going to be a tough task. Offaly are fighting for their lives and probably are hard done by being on no points. They’ve put in some good performances. So we knew it was going to be a battle but still to our own standard we would probably have been below that tonight.”

Offaly got off to a promising start with a goal chance from Jordan Hayes from throw-in that he fired low over the bar and Dylan Hayes converting a free moments later. Down quickly settled however with a free from Pat Havern and a point from Odhran Murdock levelling proceedings. In the sixth minute the home side went in front with a three-pointer provide by Liam Kerr who swooped in and drilled into the net after Daniel Guinness had worked his way into the square but lost the ball. Traded points followed but Offaly could have levelled the match on 13 minutes had Lee Pearson’s shot not been well saved by Down goalkeeper John O’Hare. Mistakes at the end of the first half could have cost the home side but Declan Kelly’s men couldn’t take advantage and the Mournemen led 1-7 to 0-6 at the break.

Danny Magill, on his first start back from injury, and another returnee Ryan Johnston increased the lead to six points and Down looked to be on their way with goals from Murdock and a second from Kerr increasing their lead to 10 points. But Offaly responded immediately when Jack Bryant broke down the other end and hit the net. Johnston sored Down’s last goal of the day on 50 minutes to make it 4-9 to 1-8 but three minutes later Keith O’Neill scored another goal for the Faithful. Further chances for Down saw Daniel Guinness finish to the net but his goal didn’t count for steps and Danny Magill then had a shot saved. That ended the goal spree but while Offaly out-scored Down with five points to three in the last 10 minutes, Down had done enough for a four-point victory.

“That was Ryan’s first minutes and it was good to get him back. I think he had a good impact in the second half” said Laverty of his Kilcoo teammate and he also gave an update on the other Johnston brother Shealan. "Shealan has picked up a small knock and it will probably be another week or two.”

Despite the performance a win is a win and Laverty is now fully focussed on Sligo next Sunday in Pairc Esler.

“I suppose your first thoughts are that you need to get the two points on the board and with our eye on Sligo next weekend it’s probably a tough task,” he said.

"It was a quick turnaround of six days and in the Antrim game we probably maxed out a lot of ourselves in the last quarter of that game. I just felt we looked a wee bit tired and sluggish tonight but the boys will recover well this week because Sligo is a massive game for us.

“They have a lot of good forwards and possess a lot of pace throughout their team. So we’re under no illusions that that’s going to be another difficult task but this team likes playing in Newry. We’re just taking one game at a time and that’s all we’re concentrating on.”

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