Conor McCarthy drills the winner as Monaghan outlast Kildare to reach All-Ireland quarter-final

All-Ireland SFC preliminary quarter-final: Kildare 0-13 Monaghan 1-11

Gradually and doggedly, Monaghan are mastering the art of making teams wonder what the hell just happened. Vinny Corey’s side made things typically difficult for themselves on Saturday night, needing a 75th-minute winner from Conor McCarthy to dig a tunnel to the quarter-final. They were by no means the better side – Kildare butchered four goal chances to leave them with a life late on. No team makes more out of that life than Monaghan.

That makes it two wins and a draw that Monaghan have mined out of this championship by scoring with the last kick of the game. For Ryan O’Toole’s goal against Tyrone and Karl O’Connell’s point against Derry, see McCarthy’s drilled effort here. With the clock deep in the red and everyone looking resigned to extra-time, the Monaghan wing-back bounced out of a tackle and sent them into the last eight. One of Kerry, Dublin and Armagh await – none of them will welcome the sight of them.

Kildare will feel the weight of this for months. They put in the most cohesive and unyielding display of Glenn Ryan’s time in charge, suffocating Monaghan with a brilliantly-organised blanket defence that regularly allowed them to burgle turnover ball and break with gusto. Had they taken even one of their goal chances – particularly the three that came their way either side of half-time when they were impressively on top – they would surely have seen it out.

Afterwards, Ryan had a needless pop at referee Jerome Henry. While it may not have been the Mayo official’s most coherent display, it was hard to sway with the thinking that he favoured either side above the other. Ryan’s team got the better of the free-count through the evening – awarded 13 frees to Monaghan’s nine. Both sides had a yellow card apiece. Henry missed some calls but the end of Kildare’s championship wasn’t his doing.

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“Our job is to try and prepare the team and get them out on the pitch for the lads to try and do the best that they can,” said Ryan. “It’s other people’s jobs to make sure they get decisions right as to who officiates these games.

“Funny enough someone said to me this week that this man is out of his depth. And he proved tonight that he was out of his depth. I can’t understand in a big game like that, you have a top class official like David Gough doing the line who was equally scratching his head on the line with me on occasions.

“But we had opportunities to win the game and we didn’t take them. Our lads battled and worked hard and that’s all you can ask of them.”

Kildare should have seen this out. They were 0-11 to 1-5 up in the 42nd minute and were enjoying themselves. But Monaghan dug in and rallied like a team who’ve seen some stuff in their time. Led by Darren Hughes and Karl O’Connell – the two oldest players in the team – Monaghan took distinct pleasure in ruining their day.

Kildare only scored two points in the closing half-hour. Monaghan scored six, five of them from play. Monaghan scored their only goal chance, McCarthy running onto a pass from Stephen O’Hanlon five minutes into the game. Kildare brought two saves out of Rory Beggan, cracked the crossbar through Darragh Kirwan and saw Daniel Flynn blaze wide with the follow-up. The difference between the teams was no great mystery.

Kildare’s best spell of the game either side of half-time. Monaghan were 1-4 to 0-5 ahead on 22 minutes but could only squeeze a Beggan free out of the ensuing 25. Ben McCormack was in potent form for Kildare, nailing four points in the first half alone. Neil Flynn, Kevin Flynn and Kirwan all threw into the pot as well and Monaghan were listing.

They sensed the trouble and roused themselves. Darren Hughes stole forward for a mark. Jack McCarron pinged his second outside-of-the-boot stunner of the day. Gary Mohan took a mark just inside the 45 that was so cheap he looked half-embarrassed when he put his hand in the air to claim it on 54 minutes. He got over his sheepishness to stroke over a gorgeous effort to bring the margin back to one.

Into the business end of things, every attack a potential season-ender. Monaghan were finding pockets now, turning back out of tackles and keeping attacks alive. Out of one such mish-mash on 63 minutes, McCarthy drilled a brilliant score from the left-hand side to draw Monaghan level for the first time in a half an hour.

And he wasn’t done there. After Neil Flynn and McCarron swapped late frees, it was McCarthy who drilled the winner.

“We got joy when we stayed composed and got pace off the sidelines and worked the shots a wee bit better, but it was disappointing to cough up that much possession,” said Corey afterwards. “Listen, there’s no point being overly negative about it, when things aren’t going well for you, you need boys to stand up, you need boys to be mentally strong and I thought for us to eke out a result was massive for the team.”

KILDARE: Mark Donnellan; Mick O’Grady, Shea Ryan, Eoin Doyle; David Hyland, Kevin Flynn (0-1), Jack Sargent; Kevin O’Callaghan, Kevin Feely; Paddy McDermott, Ben McCormack (0-4, one mark), Alex Beirne (0-2); Neil Flynn (0-5, three frees, one 45), Darragh Kirwan (0-1), Daniel Flynn.

Subs: Jack Robinson for McCormack (43 mins); Darragh Malone for Hyland (66); Paul Cribbin for D Flynn (70); Jimmy Hyland for N Flynn (73).

MONAGHAN: Rory Beggan (0-1, free); Ryan O’Toole, Kieran Duffy, Conor Boyle; Karl O’Connell, Dessie Ward, Conor McCarthy (1-2); Darren Hughes (0-1, mark), Killian Lavelle; Stephen O’Hanlon, Micháel Bannigan (0-3, two frees), Ryan McAnespie; Jack McCarron (0-3, one free), Gary Mohan (0-1, mark), Karl Gallagher.

Subs: Shane Carey for McAnespie (temp, 33 mins); Conor McManus for Gallagher (h-t); Ryan Wylie for Lavelle (temp, 42-43); Wylie for O’Toole (59); Colm Lennon for O’Connell (temp, 60-61); Kieran Hughes for Ward (69); Seán Jones for Carey (71).

Referee: Jerome Henry (Mayo).