All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Group 4, round three
Monaghan 0-17 Donegal 0-19
YOU often hear about respect. When the ball is thrown in, the best rivalries abandon that. They abandon odds, predictions, form. The Donegal-Monaghan tale is less predictable than most. We really should have known this was coming. Donegal were never going to fear this.
Dara O’Baoill typified an almost faultless Tír Chonaill outfit in the opening period. Shooting on sight, scoring at will. Their conversion rate was 81 per cent at the break. At full time, it was over 70 per cent. Monaghan’s, by contrast, was roughly one in two.
A home tie now awaits a side that were tipped by many to fall to all three of Monaghan, Derry, and Clare. The tides have changed along the north-west of the Wild Atlantic Way, something that is not lost on the Gaoth Dobhair man. After all the talk, knockout football is here, and Ballybofey will be hopping.
“We’re very happy, we’re delighted to get that second place. It means a lot to get another game in MacCumhaill Park. That’s what we had been looking towards and we’re glad to get over the line.
“We knew we needed a strong start against Monaghan, but a few things didn’t go our way in then in the second half. We know we still have work to do. We’ll look at where we slipped up after having such a good first half.
“At the end of the day it’s good to get over the line.”
You get the impression the confidence is beginning to bubble underneath the surface. This was no shock. O’Baoill seemed keen to imply on more than one occasion that Saturday’s spuds can only sprout from Monday’s seeds.
“We’ve been building every day at training, and this is what we’ve been looking to do.”
For Monaghan, something just didn’t click, and this is the kind of result that will fuel the fire of the inconsistency tag once more. Even still, they had more than enough chances to win the game. Conor McCarthy’s two wides in injury time left them in desperate search of a goal that never looked like coming.
Contrast that with Shaun Patton’s free just moments before. His opposite man Rory Beggan had been harshly adjudged to have fouled by the stand side, and the Monaghan crowd that had been ignited in the comeback quest let their disapproval be known. The boos rained in.
Up stepped Patton. Nailed it. Cushion reestablished.
Barring two or three shaky ones on a full Farney press, Patton’s kick outs were also exemplary. Beggan meanwhile struggled early on, with the long option to Karl Gallagher proving a failed experiment once the Tír Chonaill men swarmed the breaking ball.
That provided a platform which yielded some incredible scores. Those scores built a necessary base, with Oisín Gallen sacrificed for Paddy McBrearty in the final quarter. For a man only recently recovered from injury, the skipper tracked back hard during his cameo, leading by example in keeping Monaghan at bay.
Gary Mohan, meanwhile, was one of Vinny Corey’s standout performers, notching two from play, as well as a mark, in a first half where he and his teammates were a certain second best. The Truagh man was again the last Monaghan man on the turf in Omagh, signing autographs and standing in for photos, all while trying to appease a mini mob he has become rather accustomed to.
His disappointment was evident all the while however.
“We’re very disappointed. It’s a championship game, we came out here to win, we just didn’t succeed on the day.
“They had a good lead built up first half, we thought we were well set when letting them come onto us, but they had kickers scoring from outside the ‘45. They showed that bit of talent, and we just didn’t live up to that today.”
For Monaghan, it means the victory over Clare was to be their last home game of 2023. A group that started so swimmingly ends on a sour note. Now they are left with an incredibly tricky path to navigate.
“Obviously we didn’t expect to be in this position, but we’re still in a game. There’s nothing over yet.
“We’ll have to put the heads down again this week.”
Monaghan don’t tend to do things the easy way. It will be a challenge to regather the troops, but Corey and co won’t fear whatever comes their way,
For Donegal, it’s already bonus territory, but they will be confident that their year is far from over just yet.
Donegal S Patton (0-01, f); M Curran, B McCole, C McColgan; C Ward, E Ban Gallagher, S McMenamin; C McGonagle (0-01), H McFadden; D O Baoill (0-03), J Brennan (0-02, 1f), C Thompson (0-03, 1f); O Doherty (0-01), O Gallen (0-05, 3f), C O’Donnell (0-03).
Subs J Ross Boyle for Ward (47), P McBrearty for Gallen (55), R O’Donnell for O Baoil (59), L McGlynn for O’Donnell (72)
Yellow cards Oisín Doherty (38)
Monaghan Rory Beggan; Ryan O'Toole, Kieran Duffy, Ryan Wylie; Karl O'Connell, Conor Boyle (0-2), Conor McCarthy; Darren Hughes (0-2), Killian Lavelle; Stephen O'Hanlon (0-1), Micháel Bannigan (0-2), Ryan McAnespie (0-1); Jack McCarron (0-5, 3f, 1m), Gary Mohan (0-3, 1m), Karl Gallagher.
Subs C McManus (0-01, f) for Gallagher (41), S Carey for Lavelle (47), K Hughes for D Hughes (58), C Lennon for O’Connell (59), F Hughes for McCarron (67).
Yellow cards Rory Beggan (68)
Referee L Devenney (Mayo)
