Down 3-13 Antrim 0-10:WITH A blazing second-half performance at Casement Park on Saturday evening, Down snuffed out any ambitions Antrim had of progressing past the third round. The visitors hit three superb goals in the second half, two within two minutes from the 49th, and the third 10 minutes later.

Down turned up the pressure play in the second half after Antrim had slipped ahead by 0-7 to 0-6 on 43 minutes, having trailed 0-6 to 0-5 at the break.

Down, with the wind at their backs, controlled the opening quarter and were four points to nil up before Antrim found the target when Paddy Cunningham tossed over a free-kick in the 18th minute.

It was 0-5 to 0-4 for the Mourne side on 32 minutes when Kevin Niblock sliced through the Down defence and, when one-to-one with Down goalkeeper Brendan McVeigh, the Antrim winger seemed to be pulled back as he was shooting. McVeigh brought off a flying save and the chance of a goal disappeared.

Points by Brendan Herron and Gerard O’Boyle put Antrim ahead by the eighth minute of the second half and three minutes later Marty Clarke levelled the argument from a 45. Then came the Down blitz.

First Conor Laverty jigged his way through the defence and shot home. Corner-back Aidan Brannigan rifled over a point and then Clarke exploded an angled rocket to the Antrim net for 2-8 to 0-7 after 51 minutes.

When teenage substitute Caolán Mooney netted number three for Down on 61 minutes the door was firmly slammed closed on the home side who managed only five second-half points.

Down have now set up a repeat of last year’s final against Cork and manager James McCartan reflected: “It will certainly be another step up . . . We were disappointed at being only one point up at half-time and we would have been certainly more disappointed if Antrim had scored the goal. Our substitutions worked well so it makes for an interesting selection for next Saturday.”

Referring to the Niblock incident, Antrim manager Liam Bradley said, “It was a penalty but the Down goalkeeper did bring off a great save.”

ANTRIM: W McSorley; C Brady, R Johnson, T O’Neill; T Scullion, J Crozier (0-1), A Healy; B Herron (0-2), A Gallagher; C Murray, T McCann (0-1, 45), J Loughrey; P Cunningham (0-2, frees), G OBoyle (0-1), K Niblock (0-2). Subs: M Dougan for O’Boyle (46 mins), A Douglas for O’Neill (50 mins), M McCann for Herron (52 mins), D O’Hagan (0-1) for Healy (57 mins), K Brady for T McCann (63 mins). Yellow Cards: T Scullion (20 mins).

DOWN: B McVeigh; A Brannigan (0-1), D Gordon, A McArdle; C Garvey, K McKernan (0-1), G McCartan; D Rooney, K King; C Maginn, M Poland (0-4, frees), L Doyle; C Laverty (1-0), B Coulter (0-2), M Clarke (1-4, 0-2 frees, 0-1 45). Subs: D Hughes for Doyle (40 mins), C Mooney (1-0) for Maginn (44 mins), P McComiskey (0-1) for Rooney (48 mins), P Fitzpatrick for King (63 mins), A Carr for Coulter (64 mins). Yellow Cards: M Poland (18 mins), C Maginn (19 mins), C Garvey (36 mins), M Clarke (60 mins).

Referee: P Hughes (Armagh).