Derry beat Monaghan and make statement of further intent

Derry 3-12 Monaghan 0-17

The Derry resurgence continues. If taking out the All-Ireland champions was a declaration, this was a statement of further intent, Monaghan throwing all their old artillery at them and still the Derry wall was left standing.

Like they did against Tyrone, mixing the tactical and physical into a perfect storm, the effort here was perhaps more impressive, especially when Monaghan eventually raged and rallied to bring it back to a three-point game with 15 minutes to go. Would things crumble?

After being up eight points late in the first half, thanks to two brilliant goals from Gareth McKinless and Benny Heron, a previous Derry team may well have winced. Instead, with Rory Gallagher shouting endlessly mad instructions from the side line, they came again, and a second goal from Heron on 61 minutes - edging in just out of Rory Beggan’s reach - effectively ended the game as a contest.

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Still Monaghan pressed hard, certainly winning the second half on more than scores alone, but just running out of road in the end. They ultimately missed almost as many chances as they converted, and against a team playing as well as Derry that’s going to hurt.

So Donegal await in a fortnight, in what will be Derry’s first Ulster football final in 11 years, only their second since 2000. The spirit of the team is evident and growing too, with further indefatigable displays from Ethan Doherty, Conor Glass, McKinless and Shane McGuigan, who finished with 0-7, two from play.

“What a game, what a day,” said Gallagher afterwards, his voice suitably hoarse. “In the first half we got ourselves into a good position, Monaghan threw the kitchen sink at us but I felt we were always going to win the game.

“There wasn’t a stage where they were ahead or close to getting level. We knew they are a brilliant team and are going to throw everything at it, so delighted.”

“Goals are massive. It’s very hard to get inside the 14 in county football. I know Monaghan got a few frees inside but never looked like getting a scoring chance. We could have had five goals. We felt we were matched up well against Monaghan that way and it suited us.”

Story

It might have been a different story without the cushion of those two first goals: McKinley’s first came on 12 minutes, mostly of his own creating after a superb run from his own 45. The second came on 25 minutes, Heron taking the pass from Niall Toner and unleashing his shot around Conor Boyle.

Monaghan were struggling with Derry’s pace and movement, particularly when bringing all 15 men back inside their own ‘D’ at times, After shooting three wide, and dropping another short, Jack McCarron scored Monaghan’s first from a free after 13 minutes. They didn’t score their first from play until just after 30 minutes, thanks to wing back Conor McCarthy.

Monaghan were lording the kick-outs, both their own and Derry’s, only they couldn’t transfer enough of that possession into scores. Niall Loughlin also got into Derry’s scoring act in the first half, McGuigan’s first free after Heron’s goal put them eight points up, 2-4 to 0-2.

Still Gallagher wasn’t unduly worried about conceding so many kick-outs: “Some of them were kicked out towards the end when we weren’t too bothered. Would I be overly happy about losing any kickout? Probably not. No matter what you do on Rory Beggan, he is going to come out with 85 to 90 per cent.

“You have to make it a battle. The same as Niall Morgan, you put a bit of uncertainty into them. It’s a war with Rory Beggan and his kickouts, it’s a war on your own. We still felt that if we were able to compete, we would be OK.”

Derry only won five of their 10 kick-outs in the first half, still Monaghan kept misfiring in every sense - wide, short, off the post etc. Only into the second half did they begin to gently rattle the best laid plans of Derry, the excellent Ryan McAnespie and Dessie Ward both scoring from play, Conor McManus taking every free that came his way.

On 55 minutes, a McManus free got them back to three, 2-9 to 0-12, and things looked like they were about to get interesting. Instead Paul Cassidy used his considerable leg speed to fire over the first of his two points, before Heron completed the act with the third goal, this one from close range, finding the slightest of gaps in the top left of Beggan’s goal.

“Every match in Ulster is 50-50 at best, we felt we could come here to win, we just left too much behind,” said Monaghan manager Séamus McEnaney. “You can’t concede three goals and expect to win. We scored 17 points, and would have expected 17 points to win the game for us, but we conceded two very, very soft goals.

“And I’d say we created 28, 29 opportunities, our execution just wasn’t good enough.

“We got a reaction, felt if we got the game down to two points, with 10 minutes to go, we’d a serious chance of winning, with the momentum. I think we pinned them in for 20, 25 minutes, but we didn’t take our opportunities.”

DERRY: 1 O Lynch; 7 P McGrogan, 3 B Rogers, 2 C McKaigue; 11 S Downey, 4 C McCluskey, 5 C Doherty; 8 Conor Glass, 6 G McKinless (1-0); 10 P Cassidy (0-2), 22 N Toner (0-1), 12 E Doherty; 13 B Heron (2-0), 14 S McGuigan (0-7, four frees, one mark), 15 N Loughlin (0-1).

Subs: 9 E Bradley (0-1) for Loughlin (42 mins, inj), 18 P Cassidy for C Doherty (63 mins), 19 B McCarron for Toner (67 mins), 17 P McNeill for Downey (72 mins), 21 L Murray for Cassidy (75 mins).

MONAGHAN: 1 R Beggan; 2 K Duffy, 3 C Boyle, 4 R Wylie (capt); 5 R McAnespie (0-1), 6 D Ward (0-1), 7 C McCarthy (0-1); 8 D Hughes (0-1), 9 N Kearns (0-1); 26 S Carey, 11 K Hughes, 12 M Bannigan; 13 J McCarron (0-4, three frees, one mark), 14 G Mohan, 15 C McManus (0-7, five frees). Subs: 10 A Woods (0-1) for Carey, 20 K O'Donnell for Bannigan (both 32 mins), 18 S Jones for Mohan (63 mins), 24 D Garland for K Hughes (55 mins), C Leonard for Boyle (72 mins).

Referee: David Gough (Meath)