Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
IT PROVES THEY HAVE COME
Monaghan dig deep to keep the Kerry comeback at bay
THIS was a game Monaghan probably would have lost a couple of years ago.
But yesterday in Inniskeen, the Farney men held out with 14 players to stave off a Kerry fightback and move ahead of them into third place in Division One.
Finding themselves a man down for the last 10 minutes and with Kerry breathing hard down their necks, Monaghan refused to wilt. Instead, they used all their experience to stand firm, with a clever decoy move leading to a crucial point by Neil Mcadam to secure back-to-back League wins.
A young, makeshift Kerry side trailed by seven points at one stage after Conor Mcmanus’ dispatched a disputed penalty.
Even though David Clifford came on to fire up the Kingdom with three points and the likes of Paul Murphy (right) battled manfully throughout, Monaghan repeated their two-point win in
Killarney last spring.
The visitors started with a makeshift midfield with UCD pairing Jack Barry and
Barry O’sullivan – like Monaghan’s Conor Mccarthy – having played in the Sigerson Cup final on Saturday.
In testing conditions, it was Monaghan who started brightest, with Kerry at times struggling to keep up to speed.
They were guilty of a lot of turnovers, some forced by home pressure and some just sloppy individual mistakes.
Monaghan opened with four successive points inside six minutes, three from play by Paudie Mckenna, Dessie Ward and Jack Mccarron.
The accuracy of Rory Beggan’s kickouts had an impact. He regularly found a man in space out wide or through the middle and on a few occasions soloed well out of goal to launch a raid.
Everything was going sweetly for Monaghan, with Mccarron frees and points from Colin Walshe and Darren Hughes stretching the lead out to 0-8 to 0-3 after 18 minutes. Paul Geaney was having some joy against Conor Boyle and nailed a point but Kerry were in serious trouble when Niall Kearns rounded the keeper and Cormac Reilly awarded a dubious penalty.
Mcmanus stuck it high into the left side of the net to make it 1-8 to 0-4.
Even though Sean O’shea frees and a superb ‘45’ off the soaking wet ground left it 1-9 to 0-6 at the break.
Kerry were the stronger team after the break as they closed to within a point on two occasions, but couldn’t get the equaliser.
Fitzmaurice stuck with the young players who had performed so well in the opening wins over Donegal and Mayo.
After picking up a much talked-about injury against Mayo, Clifford came on for the second half and made an inevitable impact with 0-3.
He gave Barry Kerr a difficult half an hour before the defender’s frustration got the better of him and he was sent-off for striking after 63 minutes.
Kerry were caught sleeping when Beggan strolled up to take a long-range free with just a point between the sides, at 1-11 to 0-13.
They switched off and Monaghan outfoxed them, with Owen Duffy instead chipping the free to the unmarked Neil Mcadam inside who popped the ball over.
It eased the pressure and allowed Malachy O’rourke’s men to get the job done.