Down upped the ante in the second half to beat Armagh by 2-12 to 0-10 at Pairc Esler.

There was a late start at Newry as the competitive GAA season opened in style with this mouth-watering clash of these deadly rivals and captain Daniel Hughes had the Mourne County ahead after three minutes.

It was double scores in favour of James McCartan's men - 1-7 to 0-5 - at half time, with Ryan Brady notching the game's first goal after 14 minutes.

Aidan Carr, Marcus Miskelly, Danny Hughes and Dan Gordon also fired points for the hosts before the interval.

Stephen Faulkner, Stefan Campbell, Aidan Forker, Brian Mallon and Billy Joe Padden were the Orchard County's first-half score-getters, but the visitors never quite got going today.

Liam Doyle (free), Ryan Rafferty and Micheal O'Rourke recorded points at either end as Down led by 1-8 to 0-7.

A tight finish was in prospect but Down stormed clear in the closing stages, taking total control of proceedings.

Substitute Conor Laverty recorded their second goal twelve minutes from the end and Doyle, Lavery and Miskelly hit points for the slick winners.

Benny Coulter came on to a rapturous reception and got his first point of 2012 six minutes from the end. Armagh's Brian Mallon registered the last point of the afternoon.

Down - B McVeigh; N Branigan, D McCartan, D Turley; D McKibbon, L Doyle (0-2), K Quinn; P Turley, C Gough; D Hughes (0-1), A Carr (0-2), D Gordon (0-1); M Miskelly (0-3), K King, R Brady (1-1). Subs: A Branigan for D McKibbon, K Duffin for L Doyle, C Laverty (1-1) for R Brady, B Coulter (0-1) for C Gough, A McConville for D Hughes.

Armagh - N Geoghan; A Conlon, C Vernon, D McKenna; D Lavery, A Mallon, M Shields; A Duffy, E McDonnell; A Forker (0-1), B Mallon (0-2), M O'Rourke (0-3); S Campbell (0-1), BJ Padden (0-2), E McVerry. Subs: J Kingham for A Conlon, C McKeever for M Shields, R Rafferty (0-1) for E McDonnell, P Gribben for A Forker, S Moore for D McKenna.

Ref - M Sludden (Tyrone). Tweet

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