Clinical Down have too much for Limerick 

All the Treaty's scores -- apart from the goal -- came from frees.

Limerick football manager Jimmy Lee.

Tailteann Cup – Group 4: Down 1-20 Limerick 1-6 

There was no contest in Pairc Esler on Saturday afternoon where Down ran out emphatic 14-point winners over Limerick in the first round of the Tailteann Cup group stages.

It was one-way-traffic once the scoreboard got moving and while that took all of eight minutes, Limerick just couldn’t put a dent in their opponents, with all of their scores, apart from the goal, coming from frees.

In stark contrast, the Down players were queueing up to score, with 13 different scorers by the end of the game. Only three of their 20 points came from frees and one from a Pat Havern mark.

Although Down came into this game with heavy hearts on the back of defeat to Armagh in the Ulster semi-final in Clones a couple of weeks ago, the goal was reset for this season and the favourites for the Tailteann Cup will undoubtedly remain so fer this comfortable victory.

For Limerick this defeat made it eight in a row and having also been relegated to Division 4 in the league things don’t bode well for Jimmy Lee’s side.

Limerick kept possession for the most part in the early stages, but Down bided their time and in the eighth minute Odhran Murdock opened the scoring from a free.

Good points from play by Liam Kerr and Ryan Johnston gave them a three-point advantage before Peter Nash converted Limerick’s first free with 15 minutes on the clock.

Conor Laverty’s men were only getting warmed up however, and they notched up six more points beginning with frees from Havern and Murdock and the rest from play via Eamon Brown, Danny and Ryan Magill and another score from Havern before James Naughton converted Limerick’s second from the dead ball, leaving the Mournemen 0-10 to 0-4 in front at the break.

Down made Limerick wait on the pitch before they came out for the second half but they began where they left off with Brown pointing straight after the restart and it looked like it was all over as a contest when Shealan Johnston set up Daniel Guinness for a goal with 38 minutes on the clock.

Limerick weren’t ready to throw in the towel yet though, as they went down the other end three minutes later and Nash cut inside from the left and hit a maximum to give his side a chance narrowing the margin to seven again 1-12 to 1-5.

Limerick had further hope when Brown was black carded reducing Down to 14 men for a spell, but that hope was soon dashed when Jamie Baynham, who was only on as a sub was dealt a straight red card for a foul on Johnston and with that Down cruised home in style..

Down sub John McGovern made it 1-4 to 1-5. The same player sent another low over the bar minutes later while another sub, Jamie McKibben hit a brace in quick succession. Limerick had given up by that stage and the home side just ran down the clock with a 1-20 to 1-6 victory in the bag.

Scorers for Down: D Guinness (1-0), P Havern (0-3 1f, 1m), E Brown (0-3), O Murdock (0-2 2f), D Magill (0-2), G McKribben (0-2), J McGovern (0-2), L Kerr (0-1), R Johnston( 0-1), R Magill (0-1), R McEvoy (0-1), P Fegan (0-1), C McCrickard (0-1) 

Scorers for Limerick: P Nash (1-4, 4f), J Naughton (0-2, 2f) 

Down: J O’Hare; F McElroy, R McEvoy, P Fegan; R Magill, P Laverty, S Johnston; D Guinness, O Murdock; E Brown, L Kerr, B McConville; D Magill, P Havern, R Johnston Subs: S Annett for McConville 44, J McGovern for Kerr 45, G McKibben for D Magill 48, P McCarthy for Johnston 57, C McCrickard for Brown 59 

Limerick: J Ryan; S Doherty, S O’Dea, C Woolfe; B Coleman, C Fahy, P Maher; T Childs, D Siachru; S Costelloe, J Naughton, C Downes; B Ahern, R Childs, P Nash Subs: J Sweeney for Griffin 33, D Siachru for Ahern 48, J Baynham for McCarthy 51, D O’Doherty for Naughton 55, E Hurley for Maher 64 

Referee: Conor Dourmeen (Cavan)