CARLOW CRASH OUT..BUT WHAT NOW FOR BOSS?
CARLOW boss Turlough O’brien will take time to consider his future after their wonderful summer run was brought to a heart-breaking conclusion. O’brien’s troops looked set to create one of the biggest shocks in recent years when they hit the front going into the final quarter of a cracking contest at Netwatch Cullen Park on Saturday night. But the home fans in the crowd of 6,124 were left shattered when Monaghan kept their composure and finished strongly to book their place in the last 12. Carlow had not played five Championship games in a summer since they won their only Leinster SFC title way back in 1944 but the key thing now will be to hold on to manager O’brien (inset). “My three years are over today so we’ll see. We’ll see what happens in the future,” said O’brien. But O’brien has little doubt about what Carlow need to do next if they are to continue their progress. “Get out of Division Four, that division is so hard to get out of. We need to be playing teams like this to improve. We have the footballers. “Look, it’s bitterly disappointing. We didn’t come for a good performance or a moral victory, we wanted to win and that’s the way we set about it. We were very close to doing that.” O’brien’s charges were in with a glorious chance of a shock win when their packed defence held Monaghan to 0-5 to 0-3 in the opening half when Malachy O’rourke’s men had the wind. Monaghan kicked eight wides in that half and lost the impressive Darren Hughes to a black-card for remonstrating with a linesman. Gary Kelly’s 49th minute goal put Carlow in front after they failed to deal with a high ball but they didn’t score for the last 20 minutes and subs Conor Mccarthy and Ryan Mcanespie picked off points, while Kieran Hughes ruled in midfield. Four minutes from the end corner-back Fintan Kelly netted for the second week in a row. “We knew we would get nothing easy and that we’d have to dig in. We knew at half-time it was going to be a real big test of character. We’re just glad to get through,” added O’rourke.