Ulster Minor Football Championship quarter-final: Monaghan v Down (Sunday, St Tiernach's Park, 7pm)
JAMES McCARTAN returns to the Ulster Championship on Sunday evening as he attempts to guide the Down minors to a surprise victory over Monaghan in Clones.
Their Ulster Minor League results, which included defeats to the Farney county, Armagh and Antrim, doesn’t suggest they can make any real impression, but McCartan will have been quietly working on a plan to surprise Garret Coyle’s side.
Down have the tools up front to cause problems and an average score of over 16 points in the league suggests their problems lie elsewhere. Liam Kerr will be their main man up front. The Burren player is not the biggest in the world, but he is deceptively strong and extremely skilful. Alongside him in the forward line will be his St Mary’s clubmate Shay Murdock and he is another real danger.
McCartan, however, has cast his net far wider than just the big teams in the county. Carryduff’s Owen McCabe and Darragh Corss man Oisin McConvey will be pushing hard for starts in midfield, while Pierce Laverty from Saul will likely be at the heart of their defence. The manager has brought together a lot of players from different clubs in an attempt to make things work.
They face a Monaghan team who are used to winning though. These players were the ones who brought a first and second ever U16 Buncrana Cup to the county in 2014 and ’15. They also performed well in the Ulster Minor League this year, before losing out to Donegal after extra-time in a high-scoring semi-final.
Much of the focus will be on David Garland, who is another in the long list of prospects emerging in Monaghan in recent years. In March’s MacLarnon Cup final, the player produced an incredible performance as Patrician High defeated Holy Trinity. He finished with 1-8 and just terrorised the Coosktown defence for 60 minutes. Attackers Micheál Bannigan and Pádraig McMahon, midfielder Pádraig Finnan and defender Frank Connolly are other players Coyle will be looking at to lead the way.
The Farney men fell at the first hurdle last year as they were easily taken care of by Cavan on a 2-17 to 1-8 scoreline. Ten players have returned from that squad and it’s vital they have learned lessons from that match and the same applies to Coyle and his management team.
They were completely overrun from the start and they had no idea how to stop it. The manager will be hoping a year’s experience will have brought them on considerably in terms of game management.
If they can keep calm and composed, they should emerge victorious against a Down side who will prove a much stiffer test than their Ulster League performances may suggest.
