An impressive performance by Down saw them defeat Sligo comfortably in this All-Ireland SFC qualifier at Kingspan Breffni Park this evening.

Down 3-20
Sligo 0-10

The game was over as a contest by half time as Down completed dominated from start to finish and they will go into the quarterfinal quietly confident of causing an upset.

Danny Hughes and Daniel McCartan returned to the Down starting XV for this clash. Saval clubman Hughes recovered from a stress fracture in his foot and came into the attack in place of Aidan Carr. Hughes was introduced for the final 20 minutes of last Saturday's game against Offaly and made a telling contribution to the 1-12 to 1-10 win.

The other change saw manager James McCartan's brother Daniel - who missed the early part of the championship through suspension - return at corner back in place of Darren O'Hagan.

Eugene Mullen was restored to the Sligo midfield for this All-Ireland football qualifier. Mullen made way for the returning Tony Taylor for last Sunday's Connacht final, but Taylor was forced off with a knee injury during the first half and was replaced by Mullen who started against the Mournemen alongside Stephen Gilmartin. Otherwise, the team was the same as that which surprisingly lost the Connacht final by 0-13 to 0-14.

Down got their campaign back on track following the defeat to Tyrone in the Ulster championship with wins over Longford and Offaly, while Sligo had only six days to recover from that provincial final defeat.

Earlier in the day, two provincial finalists had already exited this year's championship and the pressure was on Sligo not to make it a third. However, only one team had ever been successful when in the same situation out of all the teams that came through this way.

The first half action was very much one-way traffic as Down settled quickly and by half time this game looked beyond Sligo as they struggled to cope with the Ulster side's movement.

The game was delayed by ten minutes to allow the crowd into the grounds safely as the sun shun down on Breffni Park. However, when the action finally started, it was Down that started the brighter and raced into a 0-3 to 0-0 lead before Adrian Marren responded with a pointed free in the seventh minute.

Down were looking the stronger and they moved into a 0-5 to 0-2 soon after as Sligo looked to still have a hangover from the Connacht final. Stephen Coen and Mark Poland exchanged points before David Kelly made it 0-5 to 0-3 after 18 minutes.

Martin Clarke put three points between the sides following an easy free and the same player added another two points soon after to make it 0-8 to 0-3 as Sligo struggled to cope.

The suffered a further setback when John Clarke finished a fine move involving Benny Coulter to the net and Paul McComiskey followed up with a point, but Sligo hit back with points from Kelly and Mark Breheny.

However, Poland hit another free over the bar to make it 1-10 to 0-6 at the interval leaving Sligo with it all to do in the second half. Down left the field to a rapturous applause from their large following as they could sense that a place in the quarterfinals was on the horizon.

Sligo manager Kevin Walsh needed to rally his troops at half time and a good start to the second half was imperative if they were to turn this match around and keep their interest in this year's championship alive for another week at least.

That never materialised as Down scored 1-2 in the opening minutes of the second half with Ambrose Rogers accounting for 1-1 of that. The goal coming after the big midfielder raced through and shot but his initial effort was saved by Philip Greene, before he fisted the rebound into the net.

Down introduced Ronan Murtagh for Coulter and the talented forward took over as he kicked five points to play to help the Mourne men to a 2-17 to 0-8 lead. Colm McGee and Conor Garvey exchanged points with six minutes remaining but this match was long over as a contest.

The outstanding Murtagh made it 3-19 to 0-10 in the dying minutes as Sligo supporters started to leave the grounds in the droves as yet another campaign ended in disappointment.

Down - B McVeigh; D McCartan, D Gordon, D Rafferty; D Rooney, K McKernan (0-1), C Garvey (0-1); A Rodgers (1-1), K King; D Hughes (0-3), M Poland (0-2), P McComiskey (0-1); B Coulter, J Clarke (1-1), M Clarke (0-4). Subs: R Murtagh (1-5) for B Coulter, D O'Hagan for D Rafferty, P Fitzpatrick (0-1) for K King, R Sexton for P McComiskey, J Brown for M Clarke.

Sligo - P Greene; C Harrison, N McGuire, R Donovan; K Cawley, B Kennedy, J Davey; E Mullan, S Downey; A Costello, M Brehony (0-1) , E O'Hara; S Coen (0-2), A Marren (0-3), D Kelly (0-2). Subs: P McGovern for J Davey, S Gilmartin for S Downey, K Sweeney for A Costello, C McGee (0-2) for M Brehony, F Quinn for E O'Hara. Tweet

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