National Football League: Division One B: There was no home comfort for Liam Kearns' side at the Gaelic Grounds yesterday as Limerick slumped to their second defeat in the league, capitulating by four points to a moderate Down.

The Northerners were paying their first visit to the venue since 1965 and they had centre forward Shane Ward to thank for victory, after his shot from 16 yards sneaked past goalkeeper Seán Kiely with 15 minutes left.

A much depleted Limerick, at that stage 1-6 to 0-6 in arrears, more or less accepted that the game had gone beyond them.

Afterwards, Paddy O'Rourke, though acknowledging that his men had blown hot and cold, was elated with their 100 per cent record.

His slow-to-settle team, wind assisted in the first half, took all of 20 minutes to put a couple of points on the board, from Ronan Sexton and Ronan Murtagh, but found themselves in arrears within a further four.

Limerick's luck changed after Michael Reidy and Ger Ahern brought them level. And then Murphy fired them ahead.

The same player tacked on another and Down breathed a sigh of relief when Sexton broke a 20-minute barren spell, to leave it 0-4 to 0-3 at the interval.

Spirited Limerick had reason to look forward to the second half, but tactics had to be changed when full back Diarmuid Sheehy was shown a yellow card.

Down capitalised and Murtagh and Daniel Hughes turned it their way. Conor Fitzgerald, sent from the bench, ignited the Limerick challenge with a brace of points, but Sexton left it all square at 0-6.

Down kept their nerve and Ward's goal was decisive. Michael Reidy left just two points between them, but Ambrose Rodgers and substitute Con Lavery settled the issue.

LIMERICK: S Kiely; M O'Riordan, D Sheehy, J McCarthy; D Reidy, S Lavin, P Browne; J Quane, J Donovan; S Buckley, C Mullane, M O'Brien; M Reidy (0-2), J Murphy (0-2), G Ahern (0-1). Subs: M Gavin for Sheehy, J O'Connell for Murphy, S Gallagher for O'Connell, C Fitzgerald (0-2) for O'Brien.

DOWN: B McVeigh; A Rice, A Scullion, S Farrell; J Clarke, B Grant, A Brannigan; A Molloy, A Rodgers (0-1); S Kearney, S Ward (1-0), C McCrickard; R Sexton (0-3, two frees), D Hughes (0-1), R Murtagh (0-2). Subs: G Barry for Clarke, J Doran for Farrell, C Lavery (0-1) for Kearney, P Murphy for McCrickard.

YELLOW CARDS - Limerick: Sheehy replaced by M Gavin, O'Connell replaced by S Gallagher. Down: Farrell replaced by J Doran.

Referee: D Fahy (Longford).