Gallagher insists grafting was the key to victory
RORY Gallagher’s beaming countenance said it all. The Fermanagh manager lounged in the players’ tunnel at Healy Park, the picture of contentment as he digested one of the most heroic performances the Ulster Championship has served up for some time.
“We’re very happy with the way the game went from our point of view,” said Gallagher, “Monaghan are seen as one of the top four or five teams and we are not seen as coming from that level. We felt though that they might have a small bit of vulnerability to a high ball coming in. Eoin Donnelly was out on his feet so we said we would put him in and he did the business for us.”
Fermanagh’s bright start may have provided encouragement but Gallagher felt his side should perhaps have had a better return from the first half.
“I thought the way we kept Monaghan scoreless and the way in which we took our own scores was good but to be only two points up at the halfway stage was disappointing,” stated Gallagher.
“We knew Monaghan would come back at us. I have plenty of experience of them over the past seven years or so I wasn’t surprised when they came on strongly.”
“But I think our policy of grafting, grafting, grafting paid off in the end. I thought it was always going to be very difficult but I felt if we kept plugging away something might happen. In the end it did and thank God for that.”
Gallagher also confirmed that there had been “an incident” which forced him to omit Seamus Quigley, who had been outstanding in the quarter-final defeat of Armagh, from yesterday’s line-up.
The Roslea clubman was due to take his place at left full-forward but did not play any part in the game.
Gallagher revealed that he will come back into the selection reckoning for the Ulster final against Down or Donegal.
Monaghan manager Malachy O’Rourke, meanwhile, was left shellshocked at the finish. His side appeared to have one foot in the semi-final only to suddenly find themselves consigned to the qualifiers.
“It’s hard to take positives from a defeat like this,” declared O’Rourke.
“We would not have been happy with the way in which we played. We tried to force things and that did not work for us. We