MONAGHAN have plenty to work on ahead of an Ulster semi-final meeting with Donegal or Fermanagh says star forward Conor McManus.
The Clontibret man took a while to warm to last Sunday’s clash with Down, but he was too much for the Mourne defence in the second-half and ended the afternoon with eight points to his name.
Monaghan had struggled to get into their groove in the opening 35 minutes though, frustrated by the packed ranks of red-and-black who disrupted the service to McManus.
“Definitely, we’ve plenty to work on,” said the Allstar attacker.
“We wouldn’t be happy with a lot of aspects of our play in the first-half. We were fairly laboured, we weren’t coming at much pace and we were a bit rusty. In the second-half, we turned it around and we put a bit more urgency into our play.”
Éamonn Burns brought his side to a venue where Monaghan very rarely lose, having guided Down to just one win all season and that a McKenna Cup game against St Mary’s in January.
McManus denied the reigning Ulster champions suffered from complacency in the first period before eventually justifying their heavy favourites’ tag, stretching out to win by 19 points after a dominant second-half.
“No, I definitely don’t think so. To be fair to Down, they came to make a battle of it. They set up fairly defensively in the first 15 or 20 minutes and it was a cagey enough affair. But as the game wore on, particularly in the second-half where we had a bit of a breeze, it allowed us attack them a wee bit and get a few more scores.
“No doubt about it, Down could have been closer [at half-time], they kicked a few wides that they maybe couldn’t have been happy with. We were probably lucky to be three up, but we knew we had a lot more in us, so it was just a matter of going out and performing.
“We’ll not take too much out of that second-half. We’ll go back to training on Tuesday night and be very focused on what we have to work on and where we need to improve.”
Despite the margin of last Sunday’s win, the bookmakers still have the Farney men, champions of 2013 and '15, as third favourites for this year’s provincial title. Their two nemeses, Tyrone and Donegal, lead the field.
When they claimed the Anglo Celt Cup last year, Monaghan players spoke of their annoyance at not being given due credit for their 2013 success. Asked if pundits overlooking them once more was an annoyance, McManus replied: “No, not really. All we’re looking at and focusing on is ourselves.
"All we could do here today is get a win and get through to the next round and we did that.”
