Gareth 'Magic' Johnson's injury-time winning goal came as a huge relief to Down manager Gerard Monan.

"When you're a point up, the clock goes very slow and when you're a point down, the clock seems to go very fast and mine was going very fast," Monan reflected in the Irish Independent after the Ardsmen finally got their hands on the Christy Ring Cup.

"They never gave up which, in fairness to them, the past four or five weeks has carried us through here. Would you like to do it that way again? Obviously not.

"In the first game against Kerry, they did that to us when we were leading and they got the scores. This was due. We shot 14-odd wides ... all that shooting practice."

He added: "We were finishing stronger (in our games) and if we could get level we could push on, but it took us a long time to get level." Tweet

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