McCartan: Cork taught us a lesson

Down manager James McCartan said that his side were on the end of 'a footballing lesson' at times during yesterday's All-Ireland qualifier loss to Cork.

The Mourne men were still very much in contention at half-time, despite having conceded goals to Donncha O'Connor and Fintan Goold.

Key forwards Martin Clarke, Benny Coulter and Danny Hughes all scored and defenders Conor Garvey and Kevin McKernan also contributed points.

But they were completely blitzed in the second half as Cork tagged on 0-12 to their tally and ran out convincing 2-20 to 0-14 winners.

Ironically, Down had leaked the same 26-point total when the sides met in this year's Allianz Football League - the Rebels reigned by 3-17 to 0-15 at Páirc Uí Rinn back in March.

Acknowledging that his charges were well-beaten on their return to Croke Park, McCartan told RTÉ: "We're gutted, just gutted for the players and the supporters who backed us through thick and thin thoughout the last 18 months.

"The players, they know that they're not as bad as the scoreline. At the end of the day, we can have no qualms about the result.

"It was one-way traffic (at times). We got a wee bit of a footballing lesson towards the end. That's life."

Cork's ability to launch quick breaks, hurtling through the heart of the Down midfield and half-back line, was crucial as they built their match-winning lead.

Down severely missed the influence of Ambrose Rogers in centre-field this season, although he did make his return from a long-term knee injury yesterday as a second half substitute.

The yellow-carded Kalum King was replaced before half-time and Anton McArdle followed him in the 46th minute, while Caolan Mooney and Paul McComiskey were thrown on in attack.

In hindsight, McCartan might have been better served rejigging his defence. Corner backs Aidan Branagan and Gerard McCartan had no answer to the scoring power and pace of man-of-the-match O'Connor and Paul Kerrigan.

The Down boss admitted: "Where it went wrong, I just felt that Cork were running through us and we couldn't get it stopped.

"They just seemed to be running from half-back and through the middle of us. Looking back, it might seem strange making all the changes in the forward line when you concede 2-20.

"I suppose we were chasing the game at that stage. Look, I'm just disappointed for all the boys."

There is huge disappointment in the Down camp that they failed to at least match last year's achievement in qualifying for the All-Ireland final.

A spate of untimely injuries certainly hindered their chances of doing so, but McCartan is wise enough to know that they simply were not playing well enough this summer.

"We put a lot of emphasis on trying to remain in Division 1 when it doesn't matter to some of the other teams - they know that they're pretty secure in Division 1.

"Come the Championship we lost key players. We had played a fairly consistent team over the last 18 months in both the League and Championship.

"That became a disadvantage because the guys that were coming in had very little experience at that level.

"That's just a small point, but it certainly wouldn't have made a difference today," added the Burren clubman, who is in the second year of a three-year term.