Ulster Senior Football Championship quarter-final: Cavan 0-15 Monaghan 1-15
AS expected, Cavan and Monaghan went at it like stags butting in the glen. As expected, the slanting rain and gusting wind called for heroes to step forward. Cue Drew Wylie... again.
The Ballybay colossus got the nod from some pundits for the man-of-the-match gong last time out against Fermanagh. Yet again, Monaghan’s full-back empowered his team-mates like few others did in Breffni bowl.
Some 100 seconds after a goal from the official man-of-the-match Conor McManus made it 1-14 to 0-13 for the visitors, Wylie bid his leave.
Five minutes of normal time remained and another four of added-on time; an awful long time in the injured defender’s book.
“It was hard to watch the game for that length of time,” Wylie admitted afterwards, “and I wouldn’t like to go through it again.
“Having to see the lads keep it going right into injury-time was probably harder than playing in the game but with all the lads coming in and freshening things up and keeping the pressure on them, I was confident enough we’d see it out.
“Anyway there was no point in me being only 50 per cent fit and carrying on when someone could come on and give it 100 per cent and push things forward and try and make things happen.”
When it comes to finding a balm for a dead leg, Wylie knows that they don’t come much better than a win over your arch-rivals and the securing of a place in the provincial semi-finals.
All in Monaghan will this week rejoice in the fact that they have such a blue chip defender in their ranks like 29-year old Wylie, bad leg or no bad leg.
As the monsoon-like conditions which pock-marked the derby duel threatened to spawn a record number of spillages, Wylie, for one, was composure personified.
Time and time again, the 5’11” and 13-and-a-half stone number three punched over his weight to intercept a burgeoning Cavan attack and launch a Monaghan counter-offensive.
Nine minutes into the second half, Cavan were at their most incisive in taking the shortest route to goal, but just as Seanie Johnston looked set to latch onto Gerry Smith’s hand-pass 15 metres from goal, Wylie got his hands to the ball to avert the danger.
Then with nine minutes left to play in normal time, Wylie again intercepted proceedings for Cavan when the aforementioned Smith tried to reach the marauding Killian Smith who could see the whites of Rory Beggan’s eyes.
“We knew Cavan would push us right down to the wire and they had a couple of chances near the end, along with the one that hit the post, but our goal came at a good time and give us a useful
two-point cushion which give us the confidence to push on,” he added.
Always keen to spread the praise,
Wylie waxed lyrical on the ‘oft quoted Monaghan bench. Messrs. Mone, McCarthy, Ward all get a mention. And a certain Darren Hughes.
“To get the win and to see Darren come on with a few minutes to go really adds to the satisfaction levels for us,” he added.
Now into his sixth Championship season with the Monaghan seniors, Wylie swatted away the suggestion that Monaghan might have been tempted to play the strong wind rather than the game after the half-time break.
“We’ve been around the block for too long and we’re too long in the tooth to concentrate on making the wind do the work for us.
“Playing the wind never got any teams the result they wanted.”
