The sides couldn’t be separated after normal time despite Sligo playing the closing quarter with 14 men after Nathan Mullen received a straight red card.
The drama didn’t stop there, however, as Murdock stepped up with the pressure at its highest and that goal saw Conor Laverty’s side book their place in the final against Laois.
It was a tale of the two full-forwards – and the two Pats – in the opening half with Down’s Havern and Sligo’s O’Connor doing the bulk of the damage for their sides.
It was nip and tuck in the early exchanges with the teams sharing the first six points before O’Connor excellently finished to the net in the 17th minute for an exquisite goal.
Cian Lally showed his basketball nous with a probing run before playing through O’Connor, who managed to control the ball from behind his back before beautifully finishing to the bottom left corner, 1-3 to 0-3.
Havern immediately replied at the other end with a booming point, one of three from play in the opening half, but O’Connor’s 29th-minute point deservedly had the Yeats men in a strong position with half-time approaching.
Danny Magill spurned a goal chance for Down at the other end just seconds later but the Mourne men finished the half brightly with points from Shealan Johnston and Havern (free) leaving just one in it, 1-6 to 0-8.
The second half was a serious 35 minutes of football and Down really came to play immediately upon the resumption with Ryan McEvoy and substitute Liam Kerr quickly firing over.
Sligo managed to get their noses back in front, though, with Sean Carrabine and Lee Deignan on the mark up front while the game turned in a crazy 60 seconds midway through the half.
Sligo full-back Eddie McGuinness was in the thick of things throughout and he nearly deflected the ball into his own net in the 55th minute, only for his goalkeeper Aidan Devaney to save his bacon with an extraordinary save.
It wasn’t long before the ball was in the net at the other end with Canice Mulligan putting the finishing touches to a sweeping team move involving Darragh Cummins and Paul McNamara to make it 2-11 to 0-13.
McEntee’s men were in pole position but that wasn’t long changing when Mullen was shown a straight red card just after the hour mark for a tackle that saw Oisín Savage stretchered off, albeit it didn’t look at all intentional from this vantage point.
That saw a six-minute delay to the game and it was all Down when it restarted with Pierce Laverty surging forward from corner-back to bag two sweet points while substitute Caolan Mooney levelled it in injury time.
The drama wasn’t done there, though, with Sligo ending their 20-minute barren spell without a score to edge ahead with time almost up as Cummins fired over a lovely point.
Ryan McEvoy strode forward to level a minute later and the Down full-back had a chance to win at the death only for his ’45 to drift wide after McGuinness had sensationally blocked Mooney’s point chance.
With new rules in place since Congress earlier this year, Sligo started extra-time with 14 men but it didn’t tell all that much as the sides only notched a point apiece in the opening 10 minutes, 2-13 to 0-19.
Niall Murphy (free) put Sligo ahead at the start of the second period but the game-winning moment came in the 84th minute when Murdock coolly slotted home a penalty in the 84th minute after McEvoy was fouled.
Liam Kerr added a point three minutes later and while Sligo sub Pat Spillane made it tense in the final minutes with a late point, Down deservedly saw it out by two points after a cracking contest.
SCORERS – Down: P Havern 0-7 (4f), O Murdock 1-0 (penalty), L Kerr 0-3, R McEvoy, P Laverty 0-2 each, S Johnston, D Magill, M Rooney, J McGovern, D Guinness, C Mooney 0-1 each.
Sligo: S Carrabine 0-4 (2f), P O’Connor 1-1, C Mulligan 1-0, N Murphy 0-3 (2f), L Deignan, D Cummins 0-2 each, D Cummins, M Walsh, P Spillane 0-1 each.
DOWN: J O’Hare; P Fegan, R McEvoy, P Laverty; M Rooney, D Guinness, S Johnston; P McCarthy, O Murdock; D Magill, P McCarthy, R Johnston; C Doherty, P Havern, J McGovern.
Subs: L Kerry for McElroy (half-time), O Savage for R Johnston (54), C McCrickard for McGovern (58), R Magill for D Magill (65), E Brown for Savage temp (66), C Mooney for Havern (70+3), Havern for R Magill (start of extra-time), R Johnston for S Johnston (75), D Magill for Havern (83), Brown for Doherty (87).
SLIGO: A Devaney; P McNamara, E Lyons, E McGuinness; B Cox, N Mullen, D Cummins; P Kilcoyne, C Lally; C Mulligan, A McLoughlin, L Deignan; S Carrabine, P O’Connor, N Murphy.
Subs: M Walsh for O’Connor (66), E Smith for McLoughlin and M Gordon for McNamara (both 69), D Conlon for Lally (70 +7), L Casserly for Deignan (start of extra time), D Quinn for Carrabine (76), O’Connor Kilcoyne (80), P Spillane for Mulligan (86).
REF: D O’Mahoney (Tipperary)
