Donegal 3-15 Down 2-10
Donegal stay on course for more championship football after a pedestrian senior football qualifying win over Down in Clones this afternoon.
The 3-15 to 2-10 win means Donegal now advance to the quarter finals of the All-Ireland championship.
Donegal were quickly into their stride, despite Down opening the scoring, with Brendan Devenney coming to the fore early on. Indeed Devenney was instrumental in the opening goal of the game, providing the pass behind the Down defence for Michael Hegarty to find the net.
Donegal wasted little time in establishing a reasonable lead through Devenney and Adrian Sweeney but were pegged back when Shane Ward hit the net after a long hopeful ball.
Down looked buoyed by Ward's contribution and came to within a point after two further scores.
Sweeney's earlier point had only whet his appetite however and he pointed three more to quash the Down revival.
Micky McVeigh in the Down goal was to heap further misery on his teammates as he misjudged a hopeful high ball from Christy Toye and helped it into the goal, to give Donegal a halftime lead of 2-09 to 1-05.
Down never looked to be getting back into the tie and Donegal took the wind out of their sales just five minutes into the second half when Stephen McDermott took on the defence and found the net after an excellent run.
Sexton got a goal back for Down soon afterwards but it was not enough as Donegal refused to let up and had all the answers to Down's toothless attack.