Tyrone 2-14
Monaghan 2-16
(Match Report Credit To Niall Gartland)
A LATE breach of the ‘three up’ rule proved costly for the Tyrone minors in this morning’s Jim McGuigan Cup final against Monaghan, which was hosted by Rock St Patrick’s.
The Red Hands were pushing for a late winner when referee Thomas Devlin judged that there was an extra player in attack, which left Monaghan corner-forward Alex McGinnity with a fairly handy free to nudge his side into the lead deep into stoppage time.
There was still time for one last play, with Monaghan gaining possession and cleverly working an insurance score from Conor McCluskey, setting the seal on a deserved victory.
The Farney County were the better team in the second-half having trailed by three points at the break. Pouncing for two goals and leading by four points with 55 minutes remaining, they almost looked home and hosed though two superbly taken two-point frees from Tyrone sub Cillian Ellis set up a grandstand finish before Monaghan had the final say of an entertaining contest played in tricky conditions.
Tyrone could have no real complaints and struggled to get to grips with the potent forward play of McGinnity and Noah Hughes, though they showed good spirit and will have learnt a lot from the game ahead of their looming Ulster Championship campaign.
Played at a sprightly pace from the word go, Tyrone skipper Ciaran McCrystal came from deep following a sweeping breakaway move to steer home an excellent early goal, while Ruairi O’Neill also split the posts to leave it 1-2 to 0-2 early in proceedings.
The Farney enjoyed a purple patch in front of the posts with McGinnity, Adam Borsje (twice) and Jacob O’Loan polishing off a sequence of attacking moves with Tyrone struggling to get their hands on primary possession.
The pendulum swung back in Tyrone’s favour with points from O’Neill and Lorcan Meenagh leading to their second goal of the game, Aodhan Corry making no mistake in front of the posts after a flurry of handpasses set up the opportunity.
By half-time, Tyrone held a 2-5 to 0-8 lead on the scoreboard, and they started the second-half in promising fashion with further scores from the influential Matthew F Daly, Charlie Meenan (free) and Matthew C Daly.
However, for a sustained period Monaghan took control of the contest. They got the ball rolling with a palmed goal in the 39th minute from Peter Gilmartin who had been loitering at the back post ready to pounce after a wayward effort at a point.
Then in the 47th minute, they bagged their second goal of the game, Sean MacCionna converting from the penalty spot, though Tyrone issued a good response when Vincent Gormley split the posts after intelligent build-up play from Matthew F Daly.
Otherwise it was more-or-less one-way traffic for a spell, Monaghan rattling off four fine points in a row, all of which came from open play.
Tyrone responded with a point from Matthew C Daly, though McGinnity’s latest point made it 2-14 to 2-10 with 55 minutes gone and it looked like Tyrone were going to run out of steam.
To their credit, they regained a degree of control and sub Cillian Ellis raised two orange flags from the dead ball to leave extra-time a distinct possibility deep into injury time.
There was still time to grab a winner and a late breach gave Alex McGinnity the opportunity to win the game for Monaghan. He fulfilled his end of the bargain from the resulting free and they had time for one final point of the day via sub Conor McCluskey.
By Mary McEneaney Tue 7th Apr
