McManus gets a perfect 10 as fired-up Farney men leave Down in the dumps
IT’S 36 days ago now since Malachy O’Rourke stood outside the Monaghan dressing-room at the Athletic Grounds and spoke of an unshakable belief in his players.
‘The season isn’t over,’ O’Rourke insisted after his side’s surprise Ulster semi-final defeat to Down. ‘We’re out of the Ulster championship but the All-Ireland series is still very much alive.’
Monaghan, in O’Rourke’s fifth season in charge, always had far greater ambitions than merely winning in Ulster and yesterday afternoon they got back on track, at Down’s expense.
Down, who outfought and outthought Monaghan in so many departments last month, gave a decent account of themselves in this rematch but when the game was there to be won it was Monaghan who seized the opportunity.
Conor McManus’s 10-point haul will naturally grab the headlines though it was a strong team performance and the Hughes brothers, Kieran and Darren, were terrific at midfield.
They scored six points between them and Kieran deservedly took the Man of the Match award, placing himself close to All-Star territory with a series of excellent performances this summer.
Darren wasn’t far behind him in the overall reckoning while substitutes Conor McCarthy and Jack McCarron looked like a couple of players with points to prove, also weighing in with six points between them.
Their points in particular were important as the sides were level at 1-11 to 1-11 with 45 minutes played when O’Rourke began to unload his big guns from the bench, helping to turn the game in the Farney men’s favour.
Monaghan will return to Croke Park on August 5 for an AllIreland quarter-final tie and that alone with represent a little piece of history as it will be the first time that the Ulster county has played seven Championship games in the one summer.
Popular opinion beforehand suggested Monaghan, armed with a precious siege mentality after being dumped out of Ulster by Eamonn Burns’ side last month, would display their superiority on the grander stage.
For the first five minutes that looked a decent prediction with Darren Hughes, black carded in their previous win over Carlow, and sibling Kieran kicking them two ahead.
Yet within two minutes Down were on level terms, setting in motion a tit-for-tat encounter that stayed that way for around two thirds of the game and provided exciting fare.
The sides were level five times in a richly entertaining first-half that was notable for Down’s utter refusal to go along with the pre-match script.
Big Down full-forward Connaire Harrison performed superbly on Drew Wylie in Armagh city and was determined to prove it was no one-off. He did just that with a terrific first-half display and scored three points off Wylie before the Ballybay man was shifted off the powerful Glasdrumman man around the 25th minute.
The third of those points put Down 0-7 to 0-4 ahead with almost 19 minutes played though three converted McManus points for Monaghan tied the game up again.
It was intoxicating stuff with both sides looking like they would score each time they crossed into the opposition’s half.
Fintan Kelly constantly raided forward from his defensive berth and hit an excellent 27th minute goal, his third in as many games after strikes against Wexford and Carlow.
Darren Hughes and Shane Carey combined to put Kelly free and though Karl O’Connell was free outside him, Kelly opted to fire hard and straight to the roof of the net.
McManus converted his fifth free approaching the half-hour mark and Monaghan were back two clear again, 1-8 to 0-9.
Harrison was to punish Monaghan again though and after beating Kelly in the air to a high ball and laying it off to Dermot Malone was well placed to take the ball on again and slip a shot to the net.
The sides went in deadlocked on 1-9 apiece which just about reflected the back-and-forth of an intriguing encounter that had the potential to go either way.
Monaghan ultimately seized victory with five points in a row between the 45th and 49th minutes as they opened up with some superb play to move 1-16 to 1-11 ahead.
Substitutes McCarthy and McCarron contributed three of those points and, suddenly, Down looked rattled.
Darragh O’Hanlon had a couple of decent chances from Down frees but kicked them wide and shook his head in frustration.
McCarthy, who was held in reserve to allow Darren Freeman to start in the fullforward line, looked like he had a point to prove.
He kicked his third point to put Monaghan 1-18 to 1-13 ahead in the 58th minute and they remained at least five clear from there on as Down tried in vain to conjure a second goal.
Harrison went close when he broke down a high ball in from the influential Caolan Mooney but his shot flew over as Monaghan finished strong to seal an eight-point win.