Monaghan clear winners over Armagh

Monaghan 1-18 Armagh 1-13

No great contest here and no more excuses, either. If Monaghan let their winning position slip for the second week in a row it would have been unforgiveable, if Armagh need anyone to blame for the loss it can only be themselves.

So now for an Ulster football final for the purists, or perhaps not. Because Monaghan will be back in Clones in two weeks’ time to face Donegal, the team they beat in last year’s final, taking their Ulster title in the process. Both teams are reportedly ordering in extra layers of under armour, plus extra bags of ice for the dressing room.

What now for Armagh? Well, they’re off to Tyrone next weekend, for a do-or-die qualifier in Omagh and again with extra bags of ice on order although, for now, manager Paul Grimley politely declined all requests for a quick word.

“I have nothing to say, even if I wanted to,” offered Grimley, which may or may not be a way of saying he had no excuses for Armagh’s ultimately tame effort to take out Monaghan at the second attempt.

Still, it wasn’t quite as comfortable for Monaghan as it should have been, because they certainly had the pace and heads on their opponents – and yet Armagh were never entirely killed off.

What ultimately sent the game in Monaghan’s favour was the so-called six-point swing, about 33 minutes into the game, when Armagh’s missed a goal chance at one end, and Monaghan promptly scored one at the other.

Five-point cushion

By then, Armagh were just two points adrift, and Kieran Toner came bearing down on the Monaghan goalmouth with, it seemed, every chance of scoring. Instead, his shot was diffused and sent out wide and, despite some calls for a penalty, that was that.

Then, from the subsequent kick-out, Kieran Hughes picked out Conor McManus with superb pass, and his finish was even better – high into the top corner of the Armagh net. That gave Monaghan a five-point cushion, which more or less saw them through to the end.

McManus finished with 1-7, with equally prolific contributions from Paul Finlay, Darren Hughes, and the ever-ready Dick Clerkin.

Armagh’s best shot of taking some dominance came early on, starting with Aaron Findon’s goal on 12 minutes – the crossbar saving Aidan Forker’s initial effort, before Findon deftly fired in the redound. Although Armagh wouldn’t score again for another 18 minutes (also losing Finnian Moriarty to a black card), as Monaghan dominated all quarters – and midfield – to hit them with five points without reply, including the first of two frees from goalkeeper Rory Beggan, and another sweet gem from play by McManus.

Indeed Armagh were forced to play the last eight minutes with 14 men, after Stefan Campbell was black carded for a trip on McManus, and by then manager Grimley had already used all six substitutes. Still, Monaghan had already limited Armagh’s attack to frees from Tony Kernan, or the persistence of Jamie Clarke, as they brilliantly manned their defence, and stubbornly refused to give Armagh any great hope of a reprieve, like they did last week.

‘Kept composure’

“We wanted to put in a big performance,” said manager Malachy O’Rourke afterwards. “Their goal rocked us back, early on, but that can happen and the boys just kept their composure. We played a lot better than we did the last day, but all it does is give us ticket into the final.

“The fellas got a fair bit of criticism after last week but we had confidence in them. The defence has been the bedrock of the team this last couple of years and we weren’t going to shuffle boys about.

“We just felt they didn’t have their best day last week but we had every confidence in them going out today and to a fair degree they shut the Armagh forwards out.

“In championship football you can’t expect to be on top all the time. But we upped our work-rate, our intensity. We got a lot more men around the man with the ball so it was great, a much better performance.”

Indeed it was, and before another bumper crowd of 23,324 – up nearly 5,000 from the drawn game – there was plenty of evidence that Monaghan will reveal exactly how close Donegal are now to their 2012 All-Ireland winning form.

McManus was superb, his 1-7 including three frees and one sublime sideline, and Finley’s 0-3 included a typically smart point from long-range, after latching on to a Beggan free that fell just short.

Darren Hughes also hit two long-range scores too, from midfield, and even with Kieran Hughes retiring early with a knee injury, there was enough hunger and quality of play throughout the field to suggest the Ulster final may well be one of the purists.

MONAGHAN: 1 R Beggan (0-2, frees); 10 R Wylie, 3 D Wylie, 4 C Walsh; 5 D Mone, 6 V Corey, 7 F Kelly; 8 D Clerkin (0-1), 9 D Hughes (0-2); 21 P Finlay (0-3, one free), 22 S Gollogly (0-1), 12 P McKenna; 13 D Malone (0-1), 14 K Hughes, 15 C McManus (capt, 1-7, 0-3 frees, 0-1sideline). Subs: 11 C McGuinness (0-1) for K Hughes (half-time), 20 G Doogan for Clerkin (67 mins).
ARMAGH: 1 P McEvoy; 19 F Moriarty, 2 J Morgan, 3 C Vernon; 5 M Shields, 6 B Donaghy, 7 C McKeever (capt); 8 K Toner, 9 A Findon (1-0); 24 A Forker, 11 K Dyas, 10 E McVerry (0-1); 15 J Clarke (0-5, one free), 12 S Campbell, 18 T Kernan (0-7, six frees). Subs: 4 A Mallon for Morriarty (23 mins, black card), 13 K Carragher for McVerry (half-time ), 22 S Harold for Toner (half-time), 20 M Murray for Morgan (40 mins), 25 A Kernan for Donaghy (47 mins), 17 R Grugan for Forker (60 mins).
Referee: Marty Duffy (Sligo).