Derry 0-12
Down 0-11
Derry scraped through to the Ulster SFC semi-final with a one point point win over Down at Celtic Park.
Down showed spirit and resilience to come back in the second half, but an injury time free was enough to grant Derry safe passage to the next round.
Derry had started the brighter of the two sides, eight points in the opening half a good return and the Mournemen went in at the break leading by three.
The turning point for Down came shortly after the restart, when Conall McGovern was shown a straight red card for what appeared to be a hand in the face of Enda Lynch.
McGovern was given his marching orders, but Jim McCorry’s side refused to lie down and instead cut the gap to just one point in the closing stages of the game.
Some dogged defending at times and a sharp shooting Paul Devlin meant the game went all the way to the wire.
With the sides level in stoppage time a black card offence gave Derry the chance to progress and the Eoin Bradley stepped up to give The Oak Leaf county the most slender of leads.
Speaking after the game, McCorry refused to blame the referee for the result and his Down side will have a lot of positives to take away from the game.
Derry will now meet the either Donegal or Armagh in the semi-final, knowing that a similar performance will see them dumped out of the competition.
Scorers for Derry: Eoin Bradley 0-5 (0-3f), Enda Lynn 0-1, Mark Lynch 0-5 (0-2f), Cailean O’Boyle 0-1
Scorers for Down: Donal O’Hare 0-1 (0-1f), Kevin McKernan 0-2, Paul Devlin 0-6 (0-6f), Conor Laverty 0-2
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