Football

Monaghan SFC: Backdoor semi final spots up for grabs

 Much will be expected from Clontibret sharpshooter Conor McManus
 Much will be expected from Clontibret sharpshooter Conor McManus  Much will be expected from Clontibret sharpshooter Conor McManus

Greenfield Foods Monaghan Senior Football Championship

The battle for the two remaining semi-final places in the Greenfield Foods Monaghan Senior Football Championship will be decided in the two back door quarter-finals this weekend.

In the first contest, Scotstown will take on Truagh in Clontibret this evening (6pm) and Latton then face Clontibret tomorrow in Castleblayney (1.45pm)

It’s really down to the business end of things now in the Championship with Ballybay and Magheracloone already through to the semi-finals.

Ballybay made the last four with a fairly comprehensive victory over a lacklustre Truagh while Magheracloone edged past Latton by two points in the best game of the weekend.

If tomorrow’s Scotstown v Truagh game is judged on last weekend’s respective performances, then Scotstown will enter this game as red-hot favourites to book their place in the semi-final.

They put up a creditable performance in defeating Carrickmacross, while Truagh had a most disappointing 

outing against Ballybay when they could only register a mere four points.

That, though, would be to take this game purely at face value which could be a fatal mistake as far Scotstown are concerned.

The local derby nature of this one and a desire to purge some of the disappointment of last weekend will see Truagh upping their game considerably.

The Hughes brothers, Darren and Kieran, are central to Scotstown’s prospects.

So too is the influence that big Francie Caulfield can exert in midfield, but they will still be without ace forward Conor McCarthy who is still in the USA.

The Hughes brothers were the main influence on Scotstown’s result last time out and even a marginal improvement on that would prove too much for Truagh and should see Scotstown through to the penultimate stage with something to spare.

The meeting of Clontibret and Latton does not look so predictable and promises to be a closely-contested affair that could go either way.

If there is one area where Latton will seek to improve it will be to apply a greater level of consistency across the 60-odd minutes, as they went out of the game for a period last Sunday when they did not score between the 16th minute of the first half and the fifth minute of the second-half.

But they showed great resolve and resilience in coming back from that and pushing the issue right to the wire as well as playing most of the second-half with 14 players following the dismissal of Christopher Rice on a red card..

His loss will be considerable as Latton’s game is built around solid defence and then hitting the opposition quickly on counter attacks.

The biggest threat to their prospects though is Conor McManus who was the architect of Clontibret’s last victory with 13 of their 15 points, 12 of those from frees.

In that latter statistic lies part of the secret for Latton if they are to advance. – do not concede frees within 35 to 40 metres of goal.

Extra-time has been provided for in the event of either or both of these games ending up all square at the end of normal time and that just might be necessary in this one.