National Football League, Division One: Monaghan 0-14 Roscommon 0-11
If ever a fixture was purpose-built to throw a bandwagon off course, it’s Monaghan in Clones in February. On a bone-cold day in front of a hopped-up crowd, Vinny Corey’s side ended Roscommon’s unbeaten run in Division One and jumped themselves up to mid-table respectability. They haven’t survived this long in Division One by quailing at the sight of the league leaders coming to town. They weren’t likely to start here.
“It’s probably the biggest trap of all time, in fairness, isn’t it?” said Roscommon manager Davy Burke afterwards. “They’re a seasoned outfit. I had a fair idea what was coming our way. It’s a sore one because you can see it coming. Did you ever watch a car crash in slow motion, lads? I’m glad that this league-run-of-a-year-and-a-half nonsense is over with, to be honest. I’m glad we can move on now.”
This was the sort of win Monaghan have been making their top-flight bones on now for nine seasons in a row. They spent chunks of the opening period here sitting in and sizing Roscommon up and when they saw there was a distinct lack of whizz-bang off the visitors, they went to work.
Jack McCarron led the line, Darren Hughes patrolled the middle, Ryan Wylie and man of the match Kieran Duffy went into shut-down mode on Enda Smith and Ciarán Murtagh. If your main men do that and you break even everywhere else, you’re not going to be far off a result come the long whistle.
And so it went. After a fine Diarmuid Murtagh point to open the scoring six minutes in, McCarron immediately swished a reply off his right foot and began a 15-minute period where Monaghan outscored the Rossies 0-4 to 0-0. New boy Karl Gallagher appeared at the top of the D to hook a fine score over his shoulder, Micheál Bannigan cut inside to nail one on the run before tapping over a free soon after. With 20 minutes on the clock, Monaghan were three up and enjoying themselves.
Roscommon shook themselves a little and a couple of stylish interventions from Richard Hughes got them into the contest. He kicked two from play, one left and one right. Throw in a free apiece from the Murtagh brothers and it was a level game on the half-hour mark. But with McCarron and Bannigan grabbing a point each before the break, the home side went in 0-7 to 0-5 ahead. Roscommon have made a virtue of their second-half displays through this campaign – they were going to have to do so again.
Monaghan weren’t in the mood to let them, however. They are old hands at setting up a blanket defence, forcing turnovers and switching the play from side to side when they have the ball. Hughes is in his 18th season of intercounty football and looks as ravenous for the fray as ever. When he barrelled through the Roscommon cover three minutes after the break to put Dessie Ward in for the opening score of the second half, it laid down the Monaghan marker for the rest of the afternoon.
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The temperature rose, the skirmishes got livelier. There were goal chances at either end – Robbie Dolan looked set to palm into an open goal for the Rossies, only to be denied by a scrambling Thomas McPhillips. Substitute Sean Jones was put clear by a sumptuous ball from McCarron at the other end, only to curl his effort a foot wide of the top corner. With 15 minutes to go, Monaghan led 0-11 to 0-8.
The killer blow for Roscommon came soon after when Hughes bought a black card foul off Diarmuid Murtagh, leaving Davy Burke’s side down to 14 men for a crucial 10 minutes. Rory Beggan iced the free and just like that, Monaghan were four points and a man up as the endgame approached. Brian Stack and Ben O’Carroll rallied to get Roscommon back into it but Monaghan saw it out with settling scores from Jones and McCarron.
“At this stage last year, we had no wins,” said Monaghan manager Vinny Corey. “We had two draws. But the difference last year was that we finished really strong. We have two games away in the west, which hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for Ulster teams this year. You can never get carried away in this league. Some people might think they have it figured out but there’s always twists and turns.”
Nobody knows it better.
Monaghan: Rory Beggan (0-1, free); Thomas McPhillips, Kieran Duffy, Ryan Wylie (0-1); Conor Boyle, Dessie Ward (0-1), Darren Hughes; Ryan O’Toole, Gary Mohan (0-1); Stephen O’Hanlon, Micheál Bannigan (0-3, 0-1 free), Conor McCarthy (0-1); Shane Carey, Karl Gallagher (0-1), Jack McCarron (0-4, 0-2 frees). Subs: Karl O’Connell for Mohan, 45 mins; Sean Jones (0-1) for Carey, 49 mins; Conor McManus for Gallagher, 58 mins; Fintan Kelly for McCarron, 69 mins
Roscommon: Conor Carroll; Niall Daly, Conor Daly, David Murray; Dylan Ruane, Brian Stack (0-1), Richard Hughes (0-2); Tadhg O’Rourke, Keith Doyle; Robbie Dolan, Diarmuid Murtagh (0-2, 0-1 free), Ciarán Lennon; Ciarán Murtagh (0-2, 0-2 frees), Ben O’Carroll (0-2), Enda Smith (0-1). Subs: Daire Cregg for Doyle, 42 mins; Niall Kilroy (0-1) for Ruane, 49 mins; Donie Smith for Hughes, 57 mins; Ruaidhri Fallon for Lennon, 63 mins; Conor Cox for D Murtagh, 65 mins
Referee: Niall Cullen (Fermanagh).
