Ulster SFC Preliminary round/Down 1-13 Cavan 0-11: This was a match that Down needed to win, regardless of how they were going to do it. The last thing a side wants going into any Ulster football championship match - let alone the first of the season - is to be the subject of a lazy supposition that they're going to win.
Going into yesterday's preliminary round of the Bank of Ireland Ulster football championship, Down were hot favourites. Division One against Division Two. A vaguely promising outfit against a team so cursed by injury that they could have arrived in Casement Park in a fleet of ambulances rather than a team bus.
In the end, it all turned out as predicted, but not before the winners encountered some anxious moments.
They were only level at half-time, 0-6 to 0-6, despite having created some fine scoring chances. Five clear goal opportunities presented themselves but, largely thanks to an exceptional display by James Reilly in the Cavan goal, went untaken.
Most matches would turn on that sort of profligacy, but Down kept their heads and did enough after the break to win by a deserved five points.
The match was played in excellent conditions, but the weather was about the only element of the afternoon playing its part in signalling the start of the championship and the advent of summer football. Despite the sunny afternoon, a relatively paltry attendance of 12,109 turned up at the Belfast venue to witness a poor match.
Although there were some quality performances from individuals, principally Michael Walsh - who was awarded RTÉ's Man of the Match award for his five points from play - and Benny Coulter of Down, and Cavan's Paul Brady, back in football action after concentrating on his international handball career.
Cavan started the better and Larry Reilly kicked them ahead after a quick break from the back.
Within the first 10 minutes certain trends were setting. The menace of Coulter in a stripped-down full forward line was seen when he drew the first saves of the day from Reilly in the sixth and seventh minutes. The second clearance fell to Walsh, withdrawn to a deeper position, for his first point of the afternoon.
Cavan did the same with corner forwards Gerard Pierson and Seán Johnson staying inside. This left centrefield congested and hard to dominate. With kick-out strategies fairly easy to anticipate - mostly aimed at either Dermot McCabe or Dan Gordan - it was no surprise that high catches were few and far between.
Cavan did better on the ground, getting amongst the breaking ball to good effect. But they didn't threaten as much as Down. While the latter were failing to turn goal chances into goals, Cavan were resilient enough to keep on track with points and there was no more than a point in the match for the first 40 minutes.
The only goal chance Cavan created saw McCabe break free on goal in the 18th minute, but he was deftly robbed by Alan Molloy.
But for Down the openings kept appearing. Coulter fielded a high ball from Liam Doyle in the 23rd minute and forced Reilly into another save from a narrow-angled shot. Four minutes later he beat two defenders to an incoming ball and set up Daniel Hughes for a point that could have been a goal, despite alert goalkeeping.
Again before half-time, this time with Doyle the provider, Cavan were exposed, but Damien Rafferty, clear on goal, drew his shot wide.
Nonetheless, Cavan's greater economy kept them level at the break, 0-6 to 0-6. Throughout the match their full forwards caused enough apprehension to tempt the entire Down full-back line into yellow-card infractions, but, although they started the second half in similarly competitive form, the collective effort eventually fell away.
This was evident in some crazy shot selection by Seán Johnston who launched four wides, to go with his six points - two from play. Overall, the attack that had managed just one wide in the first half ended up more constrained by a supplemented Down defence and four of the forwards were replaced before the final whistle.
There was, however, still only a point in it when Coulter struck for the match's decisive score. The springboard was a cleared Cavan attack.
Hughes kept the ball from crossing the sideline and sent Eoin McCartan away. His neatly-judged lob found Coulter in space and despite the efforts of Reilly, he got a fist to the ball and popped it into the net.
Cavan responded with three points from Johnston in the four minutes that followed, but they weren't able to take control of the match even though replacement Jason O'Reilly, back from injury, rolled a shot past Brendan McVeigh only to see it cleared off the line.
Otherwise, Down hit accurately on the break like a boxer jabbing a tired opponent and closed out the match with four unanswered points, two from replacement Ronan Murtagh.
They go to Ballybofey next month knowing that improvement is needed, but at least they're going.
DOWN: 1 B McVeigh; 2 M Cole, 3 B Grant, 4 D McCartan; 5 P Murphy, 6 J Clarke, 7 D Rafferty; 8 A Molloy, 9 D Gordan (0-1); 10 E McCartan (0-1), 11 A Rogers (0-1), 12 D Hughes (0-3, two frees); 13 L Doyle, B Coulter (1-0), 15 M Walsh (0-5). Subs: 20 M Doran for Rafferty (48 mins); 19 R Murtagh (0-2) for E McCartan, 24 C Laverty for Rogers (67 mins); 17 A Scullion for Molloy (73 mins).
CAVAN: 1 J Reilly; 3 Pauric Reilly, 2 M Hannon, 4 K Fannin; 5 M Cahill, 6 A Gaynor, 7 P Brady (0-1); 8 D McCabe (0-1, a free), 9 C Collins; 10 M McKeever, 11 Peter Reilly, 12 S Brady; 13 G Pierson (0-1), 14 L Reilly (0-2), 15 S Johnston (0-6, four frees). Subs: 18 J O'Reilly for Pierson (49 mins); 24 C Mackey for Peter Reilly (65 mins); 17 E O'Reilly for L Reilly (69 mins).
Cards: Down - Yellow: B Grant (15 mins), M Cole (50 mins), D McCartan (59 mins), D Gordan (60 & 70 mins) Red: Gordan (70 mins).
Cavan - Yellow: A Gaynor (68 mins).
Referee: E Murtagh (Longford).
