Gaelic Games

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Conor Love said it was "hard to put into words" Fermanagh's crushing disappointment after Down snatched a dramatic 2-19 to 0-23 Ulster SFC victory at Brewster Park.

Love's all-action display, which included scoring 0-5 and still earned him the man-of-the-match award, helped Fermanagh lead by seven points with seven minutes remaining only for Daniel Guinness and Ryan McEvoy goals to earn Down an unlikely win.

"Honestly, I can't even think about what happened there in the last 10 minutes," said a clearly devastated Love as Fermanagh remained without an Ulster Championship win since 2018.

"We can play the football. We're as good as any team. Honestly…….but there's no point thinking about it now."

The Enniskillen Gaels club-man itted however that the squad are going to have to study their late collapse, painful viewing as it will undoubtedly be, adding that it was not the first time they have thrown away seemingly a winning lead.

"We're going to have to look at it again. To lose it like that, it's happened too much the last years."

The arrival of the new football rules - and in particular the two-point score - led to a series of comebacks during the Allianz Football League and Love said Fermanagh had inflicting something similar on Sligo when fighting back to draw the Division Three contest at Brewster Park on 1 March.

"That's the thing with the new game. We've been the other way with Sligo in the League when we were seven down.

"It's not like we weren't aware that that could happen. It happened but you're never ready for that."

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Wexford avenged their Leinster Championship defeat by Antrim last year as they beat the Saffrons 2-24 to 0-19 in the provincial series opener at Wexford Park.

Antrim started impressively as they led 0-6 to 0-2 after nine minutes but Lee Chin's nine points helped the home side fight back to lead 0-14 to 0-10 at half-time, despite having Jack O'Connor sent off on 21 minutes.

Chin went on to finish with 0-16 for Wexford although the key goals which effectively ended Antrim's hopes were scored by Kevin Foley and Cian Byrne in the 53rd and 60th minutes.

Antrim's early lead could have been even bigger with Nigel Elliott going close to notching a goal in the opening seconds and Gerard Walsh then firing a penalty over the crossbar for the opening score.

Walsh lined out despite the death of his younger sister Fionnuala last week and he went on to tally 0-4 for the Saffrons.

However after trailing 0-6 to 0-2, Wexford responded with six unanswered scores as Chin hit four straight points before two more Rory O'Connor efforts.

Jack O'Connor's sending off for an apparent strike looked to be a major boost for Davy Fitzgerald's side on his return to Wexford Park after being in charge of the county between 2016 and 2021.

But with Chin continuing to fire over points from frees and play and Conor Hearne also notching two scores, Wexford led 0-14 to 0-10 at the interval.

Two superb James McNaughton scores helped reduce Wexford's lead to 0-15 to 0-13 but the home side regained control with four straight scores, with included two more frees from home skipper Chin.

Keelan Molloy then had a goal chance for the Saffrons but Wexford keeper Mark Fanning made a brilliant save to divert the sliotar over the crossbar for a point.

The Saffrons were still in touch at 0-20 to 0-16 down but Foley's goal after he won the ball from a puckout and ran straight through the middle to fire past Ryan Elliott put Wexford in control.

Any remote hopes of a late Antrim fightback were ended by Cian Byrne's goal which was set up by Cian Molloy seconds after the Saffrons had been reduced to 14 men themselves following Conor Boyd's second yellow card.

After his side had appeared to be the victims of several harsh refereeing calls, Antrim boss Fitzgerald was yellow carded for protests in the closing stages.

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Oisin Smyth says home advantage will be "really important" to Fermanagh as they aim to achieve a first Ulster Football Championship win since 2018 in Saturday's contest against Down at Brewster Park (16:00 BST).

The Erne County have not won a game in the provincial series since Eoin Donnelly's last-gasp fisted goal earned them a dramatic 1-8 to 0-10 semi-final victory over Monaghan seven years ago.

"The home crowd get behind us [at Brewster Park] and hopefully we'll give it a good rattle on Saturday," Derrygonnelly club-man Smyth said of a contest which will be live on BBC Two NI and the BBC iPlayer.

"Antrim showed how important it [home advantage] is, whenever you have the crowd behind you and you put it up to teams physically. Those are the basics."

Both of Saturday's teams will play in Division Three of the Allianz Football League next season with Down suffering relegation despite beating Monaghan in the final round of Division Two fixtures and Fermanagh narrowly missing out on promotion.

Down's impressive display against Monaghan probably makes them marginal favourites but Fermanagh will quietly fancy their chances despite the expected absence of key forward Ultan Kelm, who has had a recurrence of the hip injury that has plagued his career.

In Kelm's likely absence, much responsibility will rest on Garvan Jones in the Fermanagh attack and Pierce Laverty could be given the task of attempting to curb the forward, who now is playing his club football for Leitrim Gaels after transferring from Derrygonnelly along with his brothers Ryan and Conall, who previously were part of the Erne County squad.

Jones hit four points in Fermanagh's narrow Division Three win over an Offaly team that eventually secured promotion with Erne County skipper Declan McCusker striding upfield to notch their goal that day.

Midfielder Joe McDade also had an impressive league campaign for the Ernemen as did goalkeeper Sean McNally but Smyth said everyone will have to perform if Kieran Donnelly's side are to end their seven-year Ulster drought.

"Down were very unlucky not to stay up in Division Two and it's a really competitive Division Two as we found out last year," added Smyth.

"Physically they are probably as good as anyone in the country, so we'll have to match that first and foremost before anything on Saturday."

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Gerard Walsh is expected to be available for Antrim's Leinster Hurling Championship opener against Wexford on Saturday (14:00 BST) despite a recent family bereavement.

The Rossa player's younger sister Fionnuala's funeral took place on Saturday but he returned to county training on Tuesday and is set to be in the matchday squad for the Wexford Park contest when Davy Fitzgerald names his Antrim selection on Thursday evening.

Saturday's game will come too soon for half-forward Niall McKenna who is still a few weeks away from full fitness.

Corner-forward Conor Johnston, who had an impressive Allianz Hurling League campaign for the Saffrons, is also set to miss the encounter after picking up an injury.

Antrim go into the championship after holding on to their Division 1B League status after drawing with Carlow in their penultimate game before hammering relegated Laois in their final fixture.

Wexford, who Davy Fitzgerald previously managed, will Antrim in Division 1B next season after losing their Division 1A status despite beating current All-Ireland champions Clare and previous Liam McCarthy Cup kingpins Limerick.

Defeats by Cork, Tipperary, Kilkenny and Galway meant that Keith Rossiter's side suffered the drop in spite of the victories over the two most recent All-Ireland champions.

Following Saturday's opener, Antrim will have home advantage for contests against Kilkenny and Dublin on 27 April and 10 May.

The Saffrons will conclude their Leinster campaign with away games in Galway and Offaly on 17 May and 25 May.

The top three teams in the six-strong Leinster round-robin series will go on to compete in the All-Ireland Championship with the bottom side relegated to next year's second-tier Joe McDonagh Cup.

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Kilcoo have appointed former Monaghan and Clontibret player Martin Corey as their new manager, succeeding Karl Lacey.

Corey will be assisted by former Derry boss Paddy Crozier and Tyrone's two-time All-Ireland winner Joe McMahon.

Corey and McMahon stepped away from their roles in the Meath backroom team under Robbie Brennan last month, while Corey also coached Monaghan during his brother Vinny's time in charge.

Crozier has worked with Kilcoo previously and led Derry to the Division One title in 2008. He also worked with McMahon at Tyrone club Galbally.

McMahon won All-Ireland titles as a Tyrone player in 2005 and 2008 and was also a selector under Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher for the county's 2021 Sam Maguire triumph.

Former Donegal star Lacey stepped down as Kilcoo boss in January after losing the Ulster Club final to Errigal Ciaran.

Kilcoo have won six Down championships in a row. They also lifted Ulster titles in 2019 and 2021 and won the All-Ireland title in 2022 under Mickey Moran.

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Listen to the GAA Social as Down legend Ross Carr sits down with Thomas Niblock and Oisin McConville to discus the Mourne County, asking if he was good enough and the fragility of life.

You can listen to the GAA Social here.

BBC Sport NI pundit Owen Mulligan picks his highlight of the Ulster Championship quarter-final between Tyrone and Cavan.

The Red Hands advanced to a semi-final with Armagh thanks to their 1-24 to 0-20 victory in Omagh.

Read more.

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Antrim beat fellow Ulster county Fermanagh by a score of 2-07 to 0-11 in the Ladies National Football League Division Four final, while Cavan claimed the third-tier crown with victory over Wexford.

The Saffrons were two points behind in the 52nd minute when replacement Aoibhinn Monaghan found the net to turn the final on its head in Clones.

After the sides traded points in the opening minutes Maria O'Neill had found the net for Antrim.

But with Eimear Smyth, who provided a personal haul of 0-7, in fine shooting form the Ernesiders led 0-9 to 1-3 at half-time.

Bronagh Devlin's 0-4 kept Antrim in touch before an eventful closing eight minutes featured not only Monaghan's crucial goal but three yellow cards, two for Fermanagh and one for Antrim.

Things were more comfortable for Cavan who enjoyed a seven-point margin of victory over Wexford in Drogheda.

Their 2-10 to 0-9 win came courtesy of a goal in either half from Lauren McVeety and Ellie Brady.

McVeety also provided a pair of points, while Aisling Gilsenan scored 0-3.

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Armagh's hopes of back-to-back Ladies National Football League Division One titles were dashed in a 4-14 to 0-11 defeat by All-Ireland champions Kerry in the decider at Croke Park.

Having lost out to Armagh in last year's top-tier decider – a few months before their All-Ireland triumph – the Kingdom emphatically reclaimed a trophy they had most recently won in 2023.

Niamh Carmody hit Kerry's opening goal in the seventh minute with a shot that looped over Armagh keeper Anna Carr.

Livewire corner-forward Danielle O'Leary notched Kerry's second major six minutes later after a Siofra O'Shea goal attempt had come back off the woodwork.

After Kerry's lightning start, a Lauren McConville point finally got Armagh off the mark which was quickly added to by a brace of Eve Lavery points for the Ulster champions.

As Niamh Henderson and Niamh Reel kicked further Armagh points, the Orchard County women seemed to be finally getting a foothold into the contest but they were then rocked by another Kerry goal just half-time as Jadyn Lucey netted.

Trailing 3-4 to 0-5 at the break, an Armagh comeback looked a big ask.

Aoife McCoy and Niamh Henderson went close to rattling the Kingdom net after the resumption but any small hopes they had of getting back into the contest were ended when a speculative shot by Lucey ended up in the Armagh net on 37 minutes.

Kerry kept the scoreboard ticking over with four points without reply courtesy of Carmody, O'Shea, Niamh Ni Chonchuir and O'Leary.

To Armagh's credit, they did persevere with their challenge during the closing quarter of the game with substitutes Caoimhe McNally and Kelly Mallon finding the target to supplement four additional points from Reel.

But with O'Leary (two), O'Shea and Rachel Dwyer all firing over scores of their own, Kerry eased towards a deserved victory.