Down's hurling crisis has deepened. Last night team manager John Crossey resigned from his position as the county faces into a relegation dogfight with neighbours Antrim in a fortnight's time.

Recently, half-a-dozen senior players walked away from the Down squad in protest at the training methods employed and even a meeting of the players called last weekend failed to smooth the troubled waters. Apparently, very few of the dissidents attended the meeting.

Belfast's Crossey is also the full-time development hurling coach for the county and he will continue in that role with Cork's Brendan Furlong taking over the job on an interim basis. He applied for the Antrim manager's post but was unsuccessful.

His first test will be to get a team together for next Sunday's final league match, at home to Wexford. Down are pointless at the bottom of Division One A with the worst score difference (-78) of all 33 teams in the competition.

Irrespective of Sunday's result, Down will play Antrim in a relegation play-off. Antrim are second from the bottom of Division One B, having beaten Galway and Laois.