Monaghan make another successful raid to the Kingdom

Kerry 1-10 Monaghan 2-8

Kerry’s lack of ambition in the opening half when playing against a stiff wind, and their failure to avail of two gilt edged goal goals, cost them another brace of points as Monaghan made another successful raid to the Kingdom to remain unbeaten in the league.

Kerry led 1-5 to 1-3 at the interval, but it was never going to be enough and though they battled back having fallen three points behind they could only cut the gap to a point. The dismissal of Bryan Sheehan only sixty seconds after coming on didn’t help their cause and Monaghan escaped with the points.

Monaghan boss Malachy O’Rourke was happy with the win: “We’re delighted. When you come down to a place like Killarney it will be hard earned, so it is a great victory for the team. I’m pleased with our performance more than anything, sometimes you win and you are not that happy with the performance, but we’re delighted now.

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“We had a lot of setbacks in the game too. Our captain Colin Walshe went off after 20 minutes with a hamstring injury, then we lost Darren Hughes at half-time to concussion. James Mealier had to come off too. Owen (Duffy) came on and had to go off but the boys dug in and showed great character. We knew going into the second half we were in a great position, but we had to keep being controlled in our play and we knew with the wind we’d get our chances and that’s how it worked out”

His Kerry counterpart was, on the other hand, disappointed: “Yeah, disappointed because it would have been good to have got something out of the game. It looked to be gone from us and we fought back. It looked like we might salvage a draw out of it in the end but we didn’t so that was disappointing of course.

“It was worrying at half-time because there was a strong breeze there, but we train here so often and we know the place so well that we figured we would be able to battle away against it but we probably did not score enough in the first half. We had chances and we did not take them and Monaghan worked very hard in the first half. Both goals probably came at crucial times for them when we were on top. Look, we just did not score enough basically.”

David Moran scored Kerry’s goal in the 13th minute and Kerry had skipped 1-4 to 0-2 clear by the 25th minute only to lose their way when Monaghan’s Jack McCarron collected a rebound - after Brendan Kealy made a great save to deny Conor McManus - and buried the ball in the Kerry net.

Monaghan afforded the Kerry attack no space, with the Wylie brothers outstanding along with Colin Walshe until injured, while Darren and Kieran Hughes were controlling the middle.

Up front, Jack McCarron along with Gavin Doogan was troubling a Kerry defence that at times turned the ball over but Tadgh Morley, Killian Young and Peter Crowley were conceding precious little .

Kerry led 1-5 to 1-3 at the break, but an early Doogan goal had them on the back foot and Paul Murphy was their only forward to score from play.

Two late Conor McManus points saw Monaghan pull three clear with five minutes left but the introduction of Darran O’Sullivan and Anthony Maher appeared to reinvigorate the home side and two frees from Brendan Kealy and Barry John Keane reduced the deficit to a point, but Monaghan were saved by the whistle.

Sheehan received a straight red just 60 seconds after coming on but overall Monaghan had a system that frustrated the Kingdom. Kerry face Roscommon next weekend in a must-win game, while Monaghan travel to Tyrone sitting on five points and joint top of Division One.

KERRY: B Kealy (0-1, 1f), S Enright, M Griffin, K Young, T Morley (0-1), P Crowley, R Shanahan, D Moran (1-0), J Barry, J Lyne, P Murphy (0-1), K McCarthy, J Savage, P Geaney (0-3, 3f), J O'Donoghue (0-3, 3f) Subs: S O'Brien for Savage (HT), BJ Keane (0-1, 1f) for Geaney (50), A Spillane for McCarthy (53), A Maher for Barry (BC, 56), D O'Sullivan for Crowley (61) and B Sheehan for Moran (65).

MONAGHAN: R Beggan (0-1, 1f), F Kelly, D Wylie, R Wylie, K Duffy, J Mealiff, C Walshe, D Hughes, K Hughes (0-2), K O'Connell, S Carey, G Doogan (1-0), D Malone, J McCarron (1-3, 1f), C McManus (0-2) Subs: N McAdam for Walshe (28), R McAnespie for Mealiff and O Duffy for D Hughes (both H/T), C McCarthy for Duffy (44) and T Kerr for Malone (65).

Referee: D O Mahony (Tipperary)