Allianz Football League Division One: Monaghan 1-12 Tyrone 0-11
A BLIP, or a sign of what is to come for Tyrone?
Don’t be fooled by the scoreline. This was a four-point hammering. Monaghan did everything required of them and played some nice stuff, but a more ruthless outfit would have put a big score on Tyrone yesterday.
Aside from their fractured attacking display yesterday, it was their hosts having it so easy with the ball that stood out.
The afternoon’s most common sight was of Conor Boyle or Kieran Duffy or Michéal Bannigan or Karl O’Connell coming careering up the middle unchallenged, popping the ball into the gaping hole between Tyrone’s full-back and half-back lines.
At the other end, there just is no denying that Tyrone are missing the focal point that Cathal McShane gave them.
His permanent exit seems a near certainty at this stage. Having spent all of last year working off their one-man problem solver, they’ve been left with a problem again.
Anyway, before we go too deep, it’s maybe fairer to analyse Monaghan first.
They were tentative enough in coming to take the gift horse’s hand, but at no point did it really seem they wouldn’t do it.
Monaghan played some very nice stuff, racking up 1-12 on a day when Conor McManus, so often the load-bearer against Tyrone, was a peripheral figure.
Conor McCarthy put in a good day’s work that returned four points from play, while Jack McCarron, Kieran Hughes and McManus all had their moments.
It was a lot about the unsung men too. Dermot Malone was brilliant in the second half. Ryan McAnespie put the clampers on Darren McCurry, and Ryan Wylie did the same to Mark Bradley. Kieran Duffy leaked two points to Frank Burns but ran him relentlessly the other way.
Conor Boyle, having had a torrid McKenna Cup game on Burns, propelled them so often with surging runs from full-back.
It was with his 45th minute burst that the game’s only goal came. Malone, operating in a sweeping role, cut the ball out and away went Boyle. He carried through tackles and while the pass wasn’t perfect, Karl O’Connell had such space in behind that he could afford a fumble and still get his toe to the loose ball ahead of Niall Morgan.
Castleblayney, with 7,500 packed in on a beautiful crisp day, erupted. Their team was down to 14 men at the time too, with Darren Hughes just limbering up to come back on following his black card for tearing down the returning Peter Harte right on half-time.
Monaghan’s 0-7 to 0-6 lead at that stage didn’t reflect the gap between the sides. Tyrone were turned over inside Monaghan’s 65’ some 12 times in the opening period. Sometimes they had the ball taken away, but a lot of them they gave away of their own accord.
The home side did thrive on the counter too, and played very well into a strong wind that, while swirling, was mostly in their faces.
Kieran McGeary clipped a lovely score from an angle he’d no right to shoot from that made it 0-3 apiece after the first quarter but when Niall Kearns did a pirouette around Colm Cavanagh’s tackle to lash over on his left foot, Monaghan re-established a lead that they never lost again.
Dermot Malone had a goal chance just before the break that Hugh Pat McGeary and Niall Morgan combined to keep out, but with Darren Hughes’ black card and the subsequent McCurry free that left just a point in it, Tyrone had hope heading into the changing room.
They weren’t helped by losing Ronan McNamee early in the second half after he and Kieran Hughes clashed heads after meeting other in an almighty 50-50 shoulder charge. Hughes stayed on and had a big impact on the second half.
O’Connell’s goal, some 10 minutes in, was the first score of the half and when Dessie Ward cut into that same gap down the middle, it was 1-8 to 0-6 and a bit more reflective of proceedings.
Kieran Hughes’ magnificent mark and diagonal ball left Conor McCarthy racing in and with Tyrone completely exposed and Niall Morgan playing 30 yards off his line, his back-pedal would have struggled had McCarthy’s effort met the bottom of the bar rather than the top of it.
Mickey Harte’s side were pushing more and more men forward, but the attacks just kept breaking down. Mark Bradley was turned over in midfield and got a black card for then stopping Ryan Wylie raiding into the wide open space.
Conn Kilpatrick did make a difference for Tyrone at midfield, and they played Colm Cavanagh at full-forward in the second half but gave him nothing to work with aerially, and weren’t looking for him any other way.
Conor McCarthy hit two fine scores either side of an Aaron Mulligan score to leave Monaghan 1-12 to 0-8 ahead before they started to retreat back into themselves, not aided by Niall Kearns earning a black card.
It never seemed likely to materially affect the game, which ended with almost 10 minutes of stoppage time, largely thanks to some shenanigans that led to three red cards in the 76th minutes.
The game had always had a slight edge in it but while it did come to a head in that incident, Kieran Hughes seemed hard done by with a straight red card for what was still a rash enough tackle on McCurry, while according to Mickey Harte, Mark Bradley was cited by linesman Joe McQuillan for ‘contributing to a melee’, which about 16 other men did as well.
Kieran Duffy earned his second booking too, but it was only killing time and taking none of the gloss off for Monaghan, whose opening two league performances have given Seamus McEnaney’s reign an early kick ahead of their trip to Croke Park to face Dublin on Saturday night.
Tyrone host Kerry on Sunday. Without a tenfold improvement, the Kingdom’s forward line could make it a very long day.
MATCH STATS
Monaghan: R Beggan; K Duffy, C Boyle (0-1); D Hughes; R McAnespie, D Ward (0-1), R Wylie, K O’Connell (1-0), M Bannigan; N Kearns (0-1); C McCarthy (0-4), D Malone, J McCarron (0-1 free); K Hughes (0-1), C McManus (0-2, 0-1 mark, 0-1 free)
Subs: A Mulligan (0-1) for McCarron (48), C McGuinness for Bannigan (56), S Carey for McManus (70), D Wylie for McCarthy (74), P Keenan for O’Connell (75)
Blood replacement: D Wylie for D Hughes (14-16)
Black cards: D Hughes (35-45), N Kearns (64-74)
Yellow cards: J McCarron (24), K Hughes (50), K Duffy (70, 76)
Red cards: K Hughes (76, straight red), K Duffy (76, second yellow)
Tyrone: N Morgan (0-1 45’); HP McGeary, R McNamee; C Cavanagh; L Rafferty, K McGeary (0-1), R Brennan, P Harte; K Coney (0-1); C Meyler, M Bradley, N Sludden (0-1), D McCurry (0-3 frees); F Burns (0-2), R O’Neill
Subs: C Kilpatrick for O’Neill (HT), D Mulgrew (0-1) for Cavanagh (54), T McCann for Harte (54), M Cassidy for Coney (60), B McDonnell for Burns (67)
Blood replacement: N Kelly (0-1) for McNamee (41-FT)
Black cards: M Bradley (52-62)
Yellow cards: N Sludden (17), C Cavanagh (20), K McGeary (24), R Brennan (27)
Red card: M Bradley (76, straight red)
Referee: D Gough (Meath)
Attendance: 7,500
