Power NI Dr. McKenna Cup Section B

Monaghan 0-11 Down 4-12              15/1/12

 

 

Monaghan fell to a heavy defeat against a rampant Down in their second Power NI Dr. McKenna Cup game at Clones on Sunday. Monaghan were unable to build on their opening-round victory over St. Mary’s, as Down rattled the net four times to run out comfortable winners. Down blitzed Monaghan in the ten minutes either side of half-time with an unanswered 3-7, which left Eamon McEneaney’s men facing an impossible task. Monaghan made three changes from last Sunday, with first-time starter Ronan McNally, Donal Morgan and Owen Duffy replacing Conor Galligan, Thomas O’Neill and Bernard O’Brien, while Peter O’Hanlon made his debut off the bench and showed some nice touches.

Dermot Malone, Ciarán Hanratty and Paul Finlay showed well for Monaghan, but overall, the hosts were playing second-fiddle for most of the game against a Down team who were powerful around the middle. Benny Coulter and Kalum King scored 3-3 between them for James McCartan’s side, while the other goal-scorer Dan Gordon, Aidan Carr, Ambrose Rogers and substitute Arthur McConville also impressed, as nine Mourne men hit the target.

Aidan Carr opened the scoring for Down from a 20-metre free after a foul on Brendan Coulter and although Monaghan equalised with a right-footed point from Paul Finlay at the end of a move involving James Turley, Shane Smyth and Stephen Gollogly, Down retook the lead with their first goal in the eighth minute. Exploiting gaps in the Monaghan defence, Aidan Carr and Coulter linked up to release Kalum King to fire an emphatic shot past Monaghan goalkeeper Mark Keogh. Finlay converted a 25-metre free for a foul on Ciarán Hanratty, but Coulter replied after a one-two with Carr. Hanratty got on the end of a Finlay pass to kick a nice point for Monaghan, but the next ten minutes changed the game as Down fired in 2-4 without reply. There looked to be little danger when Carr punted a hopeful ball towards the edge of the square, but King got a powerful punch to the ball, which found its way into the net, despite Keogh getting a hand on it. Marcus Miskelly quickly added a point, before King did brilliantly to keep the ball in play from what looked a lost cause to allow Coulter and Miskelly to link up for Ambrose Rogers to split the posts. Miskelly and Coulter were both involved again a minute later when the latter tapped the ball over the bar and Down’s dominance continued when Conor Gough opened his account after Niall McParland had been blocked down by Darren Hughes. Worse was to follow for Monaghan on 32 minutes, when another high ball in by Gough was met by the fist of Dan Gordon for Down’s third goal, which put them ahead by 3-6 to 0-3 at half-time.

Miskelly got the first score of the second half from a 25-metre, free following a foul on Gordon, who quickly added a good point from play. Coulter got on the end of a crossfield ball from Miskelly to get his third point of the game and he gratefully accepted a gift of a goal eight minutes into the half when a misplaced pass from Karl O’Connell left the veteran forward with the simple task of tapping the ball home from close range. Finlay ended 23 scoreless minutes for Monaghan after a good burst out of defence by Dermot Malone and he added a brace of points from 25-metre frees after fouls on himself and Hanratty, before Keogh made a comfortable save from an ambitious goal-attempt by Gough. As Down’s he move of Darren Hughes to midfield strengthened Monaghan and his run set up Finlay for a fine point from play, before Hanratty curled over a well-taken score off his right foot from a tight angle, following good approach play by substitutes Peter O’Hanlon and David Millar. Finlay sent over another pair of frees after fouls on Matthew McKenna and Hanratty, who won a Hughes pass to create a point for another sub, Bernard O’Brien – Monaghan’s eighth in a row. Ciarán Brannigan got Down’s first score for 23 minutes after strong work by fellow sub Arthur McConville, who added his own name to the scoresheet a minute from the end of normal time. There was still time for McConville to finish the game in style for Down with a great point off the outside of his left boot after he had exchanged passes with Gough. Down now have one foot in the semi-finals ahead of their game against St. Mary’s, while Monaghan need to win away to Armagh on Wednesday night to maintain any chance of advancing.

Monaghan: M Keogh; K O’Connell, Darren Hughes (Capt.), D Malone; R McNally, V Corey, D Morgan; C Daly, J Turley; M McKenna, S Gollogly, S Smyth; C Hanratty (0-2), P Finlay (0-8, 5f), O Duffy.

Subs: P O’Hanlon for Daly, C Galligan for Morgan (both H-T), B O’Brien (0-1) for Gollogly (47), D Millar for Smyth (48), J Bellew for Duffy (57).

Down: M McAllister; K Duffin, D McCartan, D Turley; N McParland, K Quinn, M Doran; P Turley, C Gough (0-1); A Rogers (Capt., 0-1), A Carr (0-1f), D Gordon (1-1); M Miskelly (0-2, 1f), K King (2-0), B Coulter (1-3).

Subs: A McConville (0-2) for Coulter (45 mins), J McAreavey for Rogers (48), K Anderson for P Turley (52), C Brannigan (0-1) for Miskelly (56), D Hughes for Duffin (62).

Referee: B Cassidy (Derry).

Monaghan manager Eamon McEneaney admitted he was “not happy” after Sunday’s Dr. McKenna Cup defeat at home to Down, but he said “it was just a bridge too far for us this week”, pointing out that his team were playing their third game in the space of seven days. “We played Dublin during the week and St. Mary’s last Sunday so it was a third game inside a week for us and you could see the boys were tired. We had a good win against Dublin who had seven or eight of their All-Ireland team on and we trained hard again on Friday night with the National League in mind, so legs were tired today.”

McEneaney rued the concession of a few soft goals, some of which he described as “almost comical”. He said “If Down score any more lucky goals this year, I’ll be very surprised” and added that Down had been much closer to their first-choice line-up. “They were near to a full-strength team whereas we had ten or 11 fellas not there but having said that, there’s a lot of things we could have done better and the boys would be the first to admit that, including myself.”

Referring to the Monaghan absentees, McEneaney said that he intends to pick all available players (including college players) for next year’s competition: “Count the college players, that’s seven for a start. As far as I’m concerned all the Monaghan players will be playing for Monaghan next year in the McKenna Cup because this thing just has to stop, we just can’t afford to do it. I was down in Derry watching three players playing (for UUJ) – Kieran Hughes, Neil McAdam and Dessie Mone, who would all be starters for us. Today, DIT had Colin Walshe and David Hughes and Paul McGuigan was playing for Queen’s and Daniel McKenna was injured. Throw in Owen Lennon, Christopher McGuinness and Gary McQuaid, who has been injured and is coming back, not to mention a couple of other lads who are trying to get their place. It is difficult but having said that, it wasn’t a good performance. With 11 minutes to go to half-time, I think it was 1-2 to 0-3, but we yet we were 13 points down 13 minutes later.”

When asked about the expected return times for injured players, McEneaney responded: “Owen Lennon will be a few weeks, he hurt his calf again which is a recurring injury he has had for the last two or three years, but hopefully he’ll be back for the start of the league. Dessie (Mone) is back, he played a bit last night, so we should have him back with Kieran Hughes. Christopher McGuinness will be playing on Wednesday night (against Armagh), we were going to try and give him a run today but another few days will help him and Mark Downey is another we hope to have back in the next couple of days.” The Castleblayney man admitted, however, that star forward Conor McManus won’t be back until the third or fourth match of the National Football League.

McEneaney concluded: “It’s not making excuses, it’s just fact. You can only do what you can do with what you have got and today when (Down) got the run on us, the heads of some of the boys who are trying to make the breakthrough went down a bit and they maybe lacked a little bit of belief. We came back well in the second half but we needed a goal and we didn’t get that. Down were well-marshalled and you could see they have a lot of work done in the last number of months.”