Ulster Senior Ladies Football Championship preliminary round: Armagh (holders) v Monaghan (tonight, Athletic Grounds, Armagh, 7.30pm)
ULSTER champions Armagh begin the defence of their title against Monaghan at home in the Athletic Grounds this evening in front of a maximum capacity crowd.
This will be the first of two games in three weeks as the teams are due to meet again in the first group game of the All-Ireland series.
Monaghan got the bragging rights that day in the recent league meeting between the sides but it was Armagh who claimed the silverware when the sides met last December in the Ulster final as the Orchard County clinched their first provincial title in six years with a two-point win.
For the winner, there is a semi-final place against Tyrone, in two weeks but the Red Hands have more immediate concerns as they face relegation play-off with Wexford on Sunday to save their Division Two status.
This evening’s game marks the beginning of this year’s Ulster championship with Donegal travelling to Breffni Park tomorrow afternoon to face Cavan in the first semi-final, however we will have to wait until August at the earliest to find out who will be crowned champions, depending on how Ulster sides do in the All-Ireland series.
Monaghan manager Ciaran Murphy, who has had just five days to turn his players around after their epic Division Two league semi-final shoot-out defeat with Kerry, isn't a fan of this stop-start approach.
“This game should never have been played in the middle of the season. We are only after a tough game against Kerry, carrying injuries into the game. We talk about player welfare in ladies' sport and this isn’t player welfare because we are not doing right by our girls. This game in our view could have been played later, but it is what it is and we have to play it,” said Murphy.
Murphy said injuries picked up against Kerry have forced him to make a number of changes ahead of this evening’s game but he believes the players coming in can show the same work rate and commitment displayed by his side last weekend.
“We were very disappointed after last weekend. The girls put in serious effort. It’s frustrating when it goes down to five free kicks to win a game but we are very happy with the way the girls performed and their attitude and commitment and the whole lot towards the game and hopefully tomorrow night we will have a few girls in and hopefully we can keep that same work rate and commitment up and hopefully we will come out with the result.”
There is little or nothing that Armagh and Monaghan do not know about each other and it’s highly unlikely either manager, Murphy or his namesake and counterpart Ronan, have been keeping anything up their sleeves ahead of this game, or the next one. The two teams will go all out in their pursuit of victory and with both evenly matched this is anyone’s call.
“Both teams know each other well and I suppose when you get to this level it is key moments that will decide who wins the game,” said Orchard boss Ronan Murphy. “Monaghan are going very well, they were very unlucky that they didn’t proceed against Kerry so they be buoyed up by that performance, but we will just focus on ourselves and try to correct our game and look forward to it. The girls have that mindset too and looking forward to every game and trying to perform to our very best.”
Murphy admits the league campaign was disappointing and knows they need to be at their very best if they are to progress to the semi-finals.
“The Ulster championship is a really competitive competition and we know that if we are not at our best we won’t proceed. The onus is on us to really correct mistakes that we have made in the league campaign and get them in order but we are expecting a very, very tough battle on Friday night.”
