THE intensity of the battle for promotion and relegation in Division Two of the League was never more evident than at Breffni Park yesterday when Cavan beat Down. As a result Cavan strengthened their promotion prospects but defeat left Down bottom of the table along with Westmeath and closer to Division Three.

The game, which started 30 minutes late as officials felt the ground was too dangerous because of frost, was watched by a crowd of 4,000. Cavan played into the wind in the first half and were happy to trail by only one point at the interval 0-4 to 0-5.

Down had the better start to the game and led by 0-2 to 0-0 after four minutes, through Eamonn Burns and Barry Breen. When James McCartan added a third point, Down looked well on the road to victory. Their confidence increased when Conor O'Neill gave them an 0-4 to 0-1 lead by the 12th minute.

However, Down added only one more point in this half as Cavan battled back for points from Ronan Carolan and Dermot McCabe.

One of the Cavan newcomers in attack, Anthony Forde, levelled the scores three minutes into the second half. As the tempo increased, so Cavan began to dominate and thanks to the accuracy of Peter Reilly, they moved into a 0-7 to 0-5 lead.

Down's only score of this half came from a Gary Mason free after 18 minutes to leave just one point between the teams. However the below-par performances of McCartan and Mickey Linden didn't help Down's cause.

Cavan wrapped up victory in the space of two minutes, first with a Fintan Cahill point and then a goal from Forde.