Long-suffering Monaghan supporter FRANK MCNALLYdiscusses their chances against Tyrone with their charismatic manager

FOR FOLLOWERS of Monaghan football, used to biting their fingernails through tight, grimly- fought battles against the neighbours, this year’s championship has been like a trip through a parallel universe.

A huge first-round win over Armagh was followed by an even easier one against Fermanagh, the bogey team of recent years.

As a result, the Oriel county arrives in this year’s provincial final untested – something not supposed to happen in Ulster.

Nothing has summed up the surreal progress to date like the scoring exploits of Dick Clerkin. Clerkin is the engine of this Monaghan team – a Galvin-esque – and possibly also galvanised – figure, teak-tough, with boundless energy. But he would not have been famous for his marksmanship, at least until recently. Then, late on against Armagh, he landed two monster right-footed points, to the amusement even of team-mates.

And against Fermanagh, as if needing a new challenge, he scored two more, this time off his, erm, weaker left.

It seems fair to assume the gentle romp that brought Monaghan thus far will come to an abrupt end at 2pm tomorrow, when they face Tyrone.

But if the Monaghan supporters are worried that the ease of the team’s progress leaves them underprepared, the manager is not. Beyond acknowledging that this will be the biggest challenge yet, Séamus McEnaney is making no excuses.

“I would disagree we haven’t been tested, in that we were three or four points down early on against Armagh, and with a team like Armagh, that’s a test. Also there were mitigating factors in our winning margins – particularly Armagh being down to 14 men for 40 minutes. But I have no concern whatsoever about the team’s preparation.

“They’re going into this game very fresh and very, very hungry. There’s a fierce desire in them to win an Ulster title. Most of them have stuck with us this last five years, through good and bad. So I don’t care how we got to the final; the main thing is we’re there.”

On the other story of Monaghan’s summer so far – the goalkeeping saga – McEnaney is more tight-lipped.

Again. The drama began at Casement Park in June when an injury to first-choice goalkeeper Shane Duffy failed to heal in time for the Armagh game.

And it’s little exaggeration to say many Monaghan supporters will never forget where they were (Andersonstown, in most cases) when they heard the news that star defender Darren Hughes would be making his debut in goal, rather than then second-choice goalkeeper.

Somewhat less sensationally, Hughes retained the position against Fermanagh. Even so, the consensus among supporters is he will be needed outfield tomorrow, in one of his more conventional roles, possibly marking Tyrone’s Seán Cavanagh. But the manager will only say that Duffy is fit again and “available for selection”.

Word in Monaghan is Castleblayney netminder Pádraig McBennett, a county regular in the past, has also rejoined the panel. The manager declines to comment, other than confirming he has “options”.

The decision not to risk the then second-choice goalkeeper – who subsequently left the panel – against Armagh is seen by many as part of a new ruthlessness in the Monaghan management, coinciding with the arrival of Paul Grimley last year. And in the general sense, McEnaney concedes that poaching the Armagh man – then widely expected to be his own county’s next manager – as his deputy was a deliberate attempt to shake things up.

“I got together with Martin [McElkennon] and Adrian [Trappe] last August or September and we all agreed we needed someone to come in and challenge things: the players, back-room staff, me as manager. Paul Grimley was exactly the right person for the job. And he certainly has challenged us.”

In fact, there could be an interesting contrast of styles on the sideline tomorrow, between the calm deliberations of Tyrone manager Mickey Harte, stroking his chin like Fu Manchu as he plots his next move, and the livelier exchanges nearby.

At the Armagh match, there were such animated discussions between McEnaney and Grimley that fans were relieved to see them shake hands at the end.

And, laughing, the manager doesn’t deny there can be creative tension in the relationship: “We mightn’t have been fighting, exactly. But we certainly have the odd stand-up argument. And that’s good. It’s what I wanted when I brought him in. I knew exactly what I was getting.”

Another change for Monaghan since last summer is that, after years of basing their game around tight defence, the team has somehow transformed itself into one now more noted for attack. The high scores were at first offset by even higher concessions, as in the National League Division One opener against Cork, when the home side lost by a point in a six-goal thriller.

But a rollercoaster campaign saw them gradually combine the new adventure with some of their former meanness at the back. And it was rewarded in the end when, finishing with the same points and scoring difference, they retained top-flight status at the expense of Derry (Tyrone were also relegated) by virtue only of a higher points-for total.

The late reprieve, after a battling defeat to Kerry in Killarney, recalled another stroke of luck from McEnaney’s first year in charge: the 2005 Division Two final at Croke Park, when Paul Finlay’s last-minute “Hail Mary” effort was accidentally punched to the net by a Meath defender, giving Monaghan the title.

That remains their only silverware under his management.

Monaghan supporters may be hoping the great escape in Killarney marks a return of the good fortune that initially favoured the manager but seemed to have deserted him since.

Speaking for himself, though, McEnaney bridles against any suggestion that the team’s Division One survival was down to luck:

“To stay up, we had to score 2-13 [3-12, actually] against Cork, and 0-15 against Mayo in Castlebar. That wasn’t luck.”

It’s now 22 years since Monaghan’s last Ulster title: won in 1988, when Tyrone were also the opposition. McEnaney was just a supporter then and well remembers the decisive goal, dispatched by “Nudie” Hughes after – interestingly to recall in the light of this year’s events – an error by the Tyrone goalkeeper.

It was Monaghan’s third Ulster title in a decade: a feast, to be followed by a famine that was not ended in 2007, when the county next reached the provincial final.

“Those were great years to be going to Monaghan games. In fact the biggest thing I miss in this job is being a supporter. going to games two hours before throw-in, experiencing the atmosphere in the town and the build-up. And of course criticising the manager afterwards. [He laughs again] That’s all part of it.”

Not that he’s cut off from such things now. In his Carrickmacross base – a large pub/restaurant called The Fiddler’s Elbow – McEnaney eats his dinner daily among the regulars, and is the front man for the family business generally. So there is no escaping football supporters, win or lose.

But he has his ways of shutting out the distractions, when it matters: “When I have a big game to prepare for and I have to get into those zones, I know how to do that.”

In the build-up to to his latest big game, McEnaney has been at pains to differentiate between the “respect” he and his team have for Tyrone and any suggestion of fear.

“Nobody could but respect Tyrone – they’re the best team that left Ulster from ever I started watching football,” he says. “But we’re not afraid of anyone, and that includes them.”

This should be the keynote for the provincial final of 2010. McEnaney’s Monaghan will take the field with all due regard for the greatest team the province has produced, at least since the Down team of the 1960s. But the respect will be put to one side at 2pm tomorrow, and when the challengers face their illustrious adversaries, they won’t be holding anyone’s coat.