Impressive Monaghan leaving little to chance

ULSTER SFC SEMI-FINAL: Monaghan 0-21 Fermanagh 2-8:FERMANAGH WON'T take much succour from a brace of late goals that made the scoreboard seem marginally more palatable at the end of yesterday's tie, because to do so would offer only selfdelusion.

It was merely a cosmetic adjustment of the final figures and it didn’t camouflage the gulf between the two teams.

Monaghan won as they pleased and, but for a dip in intensity in the final third of the match, could have administered an even more painful lesson to their neighbours.

With just under 15 minutes remaining, Monaghan led by 14 points, a margin that Fermanagh managed to cut in half by the final whistle.

Monaghan manager Séamus McEnaney spoke about the instruction he gave his players prior to the match, about taking the game to their opponents. His team fulfilled that remit diligently. From the opening throes of the contest they moved with a fluidity, pace and precision that left their opponents bemused and bedraggled.

The Monaghan half back line was the catalyst initially – in particular Damien Freeman, who kicked a brace of points. His overlapping runs went unchecked time and again, ably supported in this venture by Gary McQuaid, captain Vincent Corey and, occasionally, even corner back Colin Walshe.

Fermanagh needed their forwards to cover the surges and chase back with integrity; they didn’t and their opponents ruthlessly exploited this shortcoming.

Monaghan’s clever use of space, the intelligent movement of their forwards – in particular the outstanding Conor McManus and Tommy Freeman – and the speed with which they worked the ball flummoxed their opponents.

Fermanagh had initially handed centre back Ryan McCluskey the task of tracking Tommy Freeman, but there were too many fires elsewhere.

Full back Shane Lyons, asked to curtail McManus, had picked up a yellow card by the 16th minute and was replaced by the 21st; the consolation if any for Lyons was that McManus retained a pivotal influence until the game ceased to be a contest. No matter what changes Fermanagh manager Malachy O’Rourke made, it had little effect.

By the interval Monaghan had racked up 14 points and were totally dominant in all sectors.

Paul Finlay demonstrated his customary elegance with the placed ball, Owen Lennon and Dick Clerkin dominated around midfield and also found time and space to rattle over three points between them. The contributions to the tally were varied in source.

Fermanagh, playing into a stiff breeze, managed just three points, the pick of which was probably right half back Daniel Ward’s.

Ronan Gallagher tried to direct his kickouts to captain James Sherry, but once Monaghan had cottoned on to this fact, he was forced to go short and the winners simply squeezed the space, forcing Fermanagh to turn over ball in the wrong places.

Rory Gallagher kicked a 45 immediately after the restart, but Monaghan were quickly into their stride again, with Finlay, McManus and Tommy Freeman.

Séamus Quigley made a difference when introduced to the Fermanagh attack but it wasn’t going to materially affect the result.

Another sub, Monaghan’s Hugh McElroy, on at half-time for Stephen Gollogly, was a constant threat with his pace and work-rate; he kicked two fine points to boot.

Monaghan were winding down when Rory Gallagher grabbed the game’s first goal on 61 minutes following good work by Martin O’Brien while Fermanagh’s second tidily finished by Daryl Keenan’s arrived in injury-time.

McEnaney was quietly satisfied in the aftermath with several aspects of the performance, but like any coach wasn’t oblivious to shortcomings he’s going to address ahead of the decider against Tyrone.

“There are aspects of our game that we’re going to have to improve, but I was pleased with the victory and in particular the way we started. We have three weeks to improve on the areas we’ll need to . . . to try and beat Tyrone.”

He outlined the respect he has for Tyrone and what they have achieved in both winning Ulster and All Ireland titles, but added, “we respect Tyrone but we don’t fear them”.

Monaghan have played some high-quality football in defeating Armagh and Fermanagh and the team. There is a brio to the way they play, a selflessness and a tremendous work ethic coupled with a maturity.

Those are important qualities to take to Clones on Sunday, July 18th.

MONAGHAN: 1 D Hughes; 2 D McArdle, 3 JP Mone, 4 C Walshe; 5 D Freeman (0-2), 6 V Corey, 7 G McQuaid; 8 D Clerkin (0-2), 9 O Lennon (0-1); 10 S Gollogly (0-1), 11 P Finlay (0-6, five frees, sideline), 12 K Hughes; 13 C Hanratty, 14 C McManus (0-3, one free), 15 T Freeman (0-3). Subs: R Woods for Hanratty (23 mins), H McElroy (0-2) for Gollogly (ht), D Mohan for McArdle (60), M McElroy (0-1) for Hughes (63 mins), N McAdam for D Freeman (65 mins). Yellow cards: D Freeman, S Gollogly, P Finlay.

FERMANAGH:1 Ronan Gallagher; 6 R McCluskey, 3 S Lyons, 2 N Bogue; 4 B Mulrone; 5 D Ward (0-1), 7 T McElroy; 8 J Sherry, 9 M McGrath; 10 D Keenan (1-1), 14 Rory Gallagher (1-2, one free, one 45), 12 M Little; 13 P Ward (0-1), 11 R Carson (0-1), 15 C O'Brien. Subs: M O'Brien for Lyons (21 mins), C Flaherty for Little (29 mins), S Quigley (0-1) for P Ward (42), K Cosgrove for McGrath (48), R Keenan (0-1) for O'Brien (66). Yellow cards: S Long, M McGrath, R McCluskey, N Bogue, D Ward, S Quigley.

Referee: M Duffy(Sligo).