McAnespie hails support of Farney Army ahead of Tyrone clash
MONAGHAN star Ryan McAnespie has hailed the support of the Farney Army after they prevailed in Salthill’s Pearse Stadium and qualified for their first All-Ireland semi-final since 1988.
McAnespie kicked four points from play as Monaghan recorded a 0-16 to 0-8 win to set up a last-four clash with Ulster rivals Tyrone in Croke Park on Sunday.
“Even the whole championship the support has been crazy,” he said.
“Every championship game now. A couple of matches going away and we had more support than the home counties.
“They’ve been fantastic. And especially when you’re out there playing, when we score or make a block, you can hear them.
“It just drives the whole team on, and hopefully they’ll be in Croke Park again cheering us on again. They’ve been fantastic.
“They’ll always stand by us, whether we win or lose, and that’s what you need as a team.”
McAnespie insists he wasn’t surprised at the margin of Monaghan’s win over Galway, who had lost just one competitive game all year.
“We sort of knew if we got the performance right, we’d put it up to any team at the minute.
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“Last week we had Kerry on the ropes and we just sort of let go and they got the draw out of it.
“We knew then we had to come here and we had to be more ruthless, take our shots and take our chances.
“We knew there was a job in hand and we knew Galway weren’t simple, especially on the league performance they were going well, and in the previous championship matches they’ve been going well too.
“But we knew if we got our own performance right, we’d put it up to any team and thankfully we did that.”
Monaghan have already beaten Tyrone in championship football when they turned them over in Omagh’s Healy Park in the Ulster SFC quarter-final before suffering a surprise defeat at the hands of Fermanagh.
However, McAnespie believes they made amends for that with their displays in the ‘Super 8s’.
“We came into the Super 8s to play every game as it comes and hopefully win every game as it comes.
“We had the two wins out of the three and drew one, so we’d be happy with that performance.
“We have a week to prepare now for the next game; it’s nice to be going in with momentum but it’s going to be a tough challenge (against Tyrone) so we’ll be prepared for it anyway.”