Tyrone 1-13 Monaghan 1-11:WELCOME TO the School of Hard Knocks. Monaghan came to Healy Park yesterday young and eager but exited the Ulster championship after a tough and painful lesson against the masters of these punishing knock-out games.
They say it’s summertime but only the umbrellas were in bloom in Omagh and, on a grey day of heavy rain, the only splash of colour came from the yellow cards the referee flashed throughout the game.
Dessie Mone, excellent all afternoon, was the last of the two Monaghan man to go after getting a red card in the 72nd minute for a clothesline challenge on Philip Jordan.
His exit was preceded by Dick Clerkin, the Monaghan captain, who managed to pick up two yellow cards during a five-minute burst in the first half when referee Cormac Reilly was firing them faster than a Las Vegas card dealer.
Through retirement and emigration, Monaghan were down seven players from the side that contested last year’s Ulster final against Tyrone. They could not afford to live without an experienced operator like Clerkin for over half the match.
A thumping second-half penalty by Darren Hughes gave Monaghan a fighting chance right until the end, but Tyrone always had the ability to create a score when they needed it.
This was a show of industry and organisation rather than flair by the champions but on a grim June afternoon, they did what they had to do. For Monaghan, it made for a joyless and punishing day out in the Ulster theatre.
“We came here with a game plan and were hoping for a big performance,” said Paul Finlay, whose wonderful 69th-minute point left the scores at 1-13 to 1-11. In theory, the visitors had a chance but that was the last score of the game and Monaghan allowed themselves to become involved in some pointless pushing-and-shoving which allowed the clock to tick out.
“It was always going to take a special performance to beat Tyrone here. We were still in the game and even though we were down a man we battled hard and have to take a few good things out of it. But we are very disappointed: the Ulster championship is over for another year.
“We wanted to do well in this championship and we are out again. But we do have a lot of young fellas coming in and we are happy with them. We can’t afford to lose players against Tyrone and expect to trouble them.”
That was the nub of it. Monaghan needed everything to go perfectly here.
And they did start promisingly, with Conor McManus hooking a brilliant fifth-minute point and Finlay letting fly with a daring shot from the ground which whistled narrowly past the Tyrone goal.
They led by 0-5 to 0-3 after 15 minutes but the game was only beginning to take shape.
An early yellow card for Cathal McCarron was evidence enough for Mickey Harte of what kind of day lay ahead and he immediately whipped his fullback off.
As it turned out, seven more Tyrone men would earn bookings over the afternoon, but they are excellent at riding that fine line between high-octane defence and discipline. And they played some terrific football in difficult conditions. All three of Stephen O’Neill’s points were magnificent.
Conor Gormley moved as well as ever in defence and Brian McGuigan lit up a grim afternoon with another virtuoso display that made the admission price worth it.
Always a consummate playmaker, McGuigan showed an interest in his own scores here, ghosting through for an early point and then, in the 19th minute, drifting on to O’Neill’s handpass and quickly striking a goal.
“My first thought was to give the return to Stevie but somebody blocked him and my only option was to shoot,” said McGuigan. “Lucky enough it went in.”
It didn’t look as though luck had anything to do with it. The goal gave Tyrone their first lead and they would not be led again.
After Clerkin’s dismissal, the task looked impossible and Monaghan’s one lucky break came in the 39th minute when Martin Penrose banged a penalty wide. Ten minutes later, Monaghan had a spot kick after Ryan McMenamin fouled McManus when he was about to pull the trigger.
Hughes’s conversion was unstoppable and suddenly it was 1-10 to 1-8. Lesser teams might succumb to anxiety in a situation like this but Tyrone responded by producing three quality points, with Owen Mulligan, off the bench, landing a fine score in the 59th minute. With 10 minutes to go, Monaghan still trailed by four.
Tyrone might be disappointed they didn’t push on from there but they faced stubborn opposition and Monaghan managed to score the last two points of the game to give themselves at least a notional chance of concocting a late goal and stealing the game.
“Ahh, I dunno,” sighed Finlay, shaking his head when asked about the “niggly” nature of the game. “It is always going to be niggly in the Ulster championship. Today the conditions were terrible and the referee, he probably had a tough game. There was an awful lot of off-the-ball stuff going on.
“It wasn’t that enjoyable and I am sure it wasn’t all that good to look at. That is the way these games have gone. Tyrone are happy enough: they are on the winning side, we are on the losing side so we are not going to hear too much about it.”
That about said it. No room for sentiment. Tyrone march on and the crowd – 10,937 in all – left Omagh drenched and not at all surprised.
TYRONE: 1 P McConnell; 3 C McCarron, 6 C Gormley, 5 D Harte; 2 M Swift, 4 R McMenamin, 7 P Jordan; 8 A Cassidy, 9 S Cavanagh (0-4, 0-2 frees); 10 B Dooher, 11 B McGuigan (1-1), 12 P Harte (0-2, 0-1 45, 0-1 free); 13 M Penrose (0-2, frees), 14 M Donnelly, 15 S O’Neill (0-3). Subs: D Carlin for McCarron (16 mins), C Cavanagh for P Harte (43 mins), S O’Neill for Carlin (52 mins), O Mulligan (0-1) for Penrose (56 mins), K Hughes for Cassidy (66 mins). Yellow cards: C McCarron (14 mins), P Jordan (27 mins), A Cassidy (28 mins), S Cavanagh (29 mins), R McMenamin (49 mins), M Penrose (43 mins) C Cavanagh (68 mins), K Hughes (71 mins).
MONAGHAN: 1 M Keogh; 4 C Walshe, 2 K Duffy, 5 C Galligan; 3 D Hughes (1-1, 1-0 pen), 6 D Mone, 7 O Duffy; 8 O Lennon, 9 D Clerkin; 10 S Gollogley, 13 D McKenna, 12 N McAdam; 11 M Downey, 14 P Finlay (0-4, 0-3 frees), 14 C McManus (0-6, 0-5 frees). Subs: J Turley for Gollogley (25 mins), C McGuinness for McKenna (h-t), D Morgan for Galligan (48 mins), D Malone for Turley (56 mins), B O’Brien for Duffy (66 mins). Yellow cards: C Galligan (16 mins), O Lennon (28 mins), D Clerkin (29 mins, 31 mins), D Hughes (33 mins). Red cards: D Clerkin (31 mins), D Mone (71 mins).
Referee: C Reilly (Meath).
