Monaghan aiming to maintain momentum

Ulster SFC: Although it's been 20 years since they've beaten Derry in a championship match, Monaghan aren't viewing Sunday's meeting in Clones as the defining moment of their season. They've already proven themselves the most rejuvenated football team around, and that's given them the confidence to look beyond their Ulster quarter-final no matter what the result.

The celebrations that followed Monaghan's victory over Meath in Division Two of the league last month did suggest one of two things - they'd be very hard to beat come the championship, or they'd get carried away and be sent crashing down to earth. According to defender Colm Flanagan, one of the more experienced Monaghan players, they haven't fallen into either of those traps.

"Nah, we'd no problem getting back down to earth," say Flanagan, who is based in Dublin and plays his club football with Kilmacud Crokes. "We got straight back into the training, because every one of us know playing Division Two of the league and playing in the Ulster championship are two completely different ball games.

"We know this is a huge test for us. Beating Derry in the league was important because it's given us that extra bit of confidence, and the belief we can actually beat them. But they were missing All Star players like Enda Muldoon and Seán Marty Lockhart. So again, playing a team like Derry in the league and the championship are two totally different situations.

"We've had a few injury problems after club championship matches, but the last three weeks have gone well in that we've been totally focused on this game. Our main aim was to get promoted to Division One, so what happened after that was a bonus. We were back at training on the Thursday evening after that league title."

Flanagan has been involved with Monaghan for the past nine years - but he was forced off the panel for the last two seasons after sustaining a broken leg in a McKenna Cup match in January 2003. It took him a year and a half to get fully fit again, and although Monaghan's fortunes never glowed while he was away, he was driven to get back.

New manager Seamus McEnaney has injected fresh gusto into the team - aided by his selectors Bernie Murray, Gerry Hoey and Gerry McCarville, all three of whom played on the Monaghan team that captured the 1985 league title.

"Seamus has been unbelievably enthusiastic since he's come in," added Flanagan, "and has great belief in the team . . . Seamus has really got us playing as a team again, and more importantly playing to our strengths. He really has given this team a huge lift. And we do have some players that would walk on to any team, the likes of Paul Finlay and Tomás and Damien Freeman."

Flanagan was part of the under-21 success in Ulster in 1999. Only three members of that team are now part of the senior panel: "It has been tough going over the last few years, and of course some players are going to get sick of it. But there is a fresh buzz about the place now."

No one in Monaghan is foolish enough to prematurely suggest they are about to repeat the breakthrough of Fermanagh last year, and go all the way to the All-Ireland semi-finals. But it's still a little bit of an inspiration. "Of course it is," admits Flanagan, "because we never felt we were that far off Fermanagh. They have shown what a bit of carefree football can do, and how one or two big wins can really give a team a lift. We're expecting a serious challenge on Sunday, and nothing will come easy. But we're just looking to have a good run this summer whatever way we can."