Monaghan's 20-year itch ends in Newry

Ulster SFC Quarter-final/Monaghan 2-15 Down 1-15:Monaghan gave their own spectacular interpretation of the 1960s Abbey Theatre hit Twenty Years A-Wooing. And their contribution to this upset in Newry was something of a revelation and an exercise in "sticking at the job".

Séamus McEneaney's men had beaten Down only once in the past 20 years. "After this it's going to be a long hot summer for us. At the end of the day, though, it is only our first game in the championship but we were fully confident coming here today," said McEneaney.

Monaghan, who enjoyed their greatest moment in the 1980s when they lifted the Ulster title at the expense of Derry, will now meet the same opponents at the semi-final stage later this month.

Down's dual manager Ross Carr was bitterly disappointed that his team could not hold on, or build on, good match-winning leads. They led by three points in the closing stages but like other periods in the match they could not consolidate the advantage.

Maurice Deegan, the Laois referee who came to the game with a no-nonsense reputation, dished out 10 yellow cards - six to Down and four to Monaghan.

There were shades of that recent controversial hurling match when hype turned to blows before the ball was thrown in and in this instance Deegan handed yellow cards to Monaghan's Paul Finlay and Down's Brendan Grant.

Almost immediately after the start the yellow-card trend continued, this time with Des Mone (Monaghan) and Benny Coulter (Down) receiving warnings.

Referee Deegan was clearly putting down a benchmark but this did affect the game adversely as it proved a good open affair, fought out at a brisk pace under a temperature of 26 degrees.

The almost capacity crowd (16,790) enjoyed every moment of aencounter which remained in the balance right up until the closing stages. Resilience was the name of the game for the brave Monaghan team and they clearly showed they had the fitness levels to match this facet.

Monaghan got off to a remarkable start with three unanswered points and it was of no little significance that Tom Freeman was part of that opening rush.

But, it must be said that resilience alone would not have carried the day through for Monaghan had it not been for the magnificent goal-poaching performance by Ciarán Hanratty. Hanratty was the goal-poacher supreme. His first was an absolute gem of its kind.

McEneaney was quick in his praise: "I always had faith in Ciarán's ability. This was his first championship match at senior level but he had shown such promise in the underage grades.

"Clearly this opener for him will add impetus to his career attaining maturity."

After that intimidating beginning, Down found their rhythm in attack and this led to full forward Packy Downey replying with a smart goal which set up the roller-coaster ride that followed.

None of the players, except a few in the suspect Down cover, were prepared to wilt under the severely hot conditions.

Prominent for Monaghan were Finlay, Hanratty and corner forward Tom Freeman.

Daniel Gordon, Aidan Power, Michael Cole and Kevin McGuigan put in impressive performances for Down.

MONAGHAN: S Duffy, C Flanagan, G McQuaid, D Morgan, D Mone, V Corry, B McKenna, E Lennon, P Finlay (0-5, one free), J Clerkin, S Gollogly (0-2), D Freeman, C Hanratty (2-1), S Smith (0-1), T Freeman (0-5), 3 frees). Subs: D McManus (0-1) for D Clerkin; JP Mone for D Mone; R Woods for S Smith.

DOWN: M McVeigh, J Clarke, D Rooney, K McGuigan, R Murtagh, B Grant, M Cole, D Gordon, P Murphy (0-2), S McGovern (0-5, 3 frees), A Power (0-4, 2 45s), R Sexton, D Hughes, P Downey (1-0), B Coulter. Subs: P McComiskey (0-2) for McGovern; M Walsh (0-1) for Downey; S Kearney (0-1) for Sexton.

Referee: M Deegan (Laois).