Monaghan Senior Football Championship semi-final: Ballybay Pearse Brothers v Clontibret O’Neill’s (tomorrow, Clones, 2.30pm)
THERE hasn’t been more than a kick of the ball between Ballybay and Clontibret over the last three championship seasons and the evenly-matched Monaghan heavyweights meet again on Sunday for a place in this year’s final.
In 2019 Clontibret won by a point, the following year the sides drew and last season Ballybay won by a point. That edge-of-a-knife series continued this season when the familiar foes met in the group stage of the Farney championship. Clontibret came away with a one-point win and it – because of a dramatic goal in their final game against Scotstown - enabled them to top the section and go straight through to the last four.
Meanwhile, Ballybay beat reigning champions Scotstown in their group opener but scraped into the quarter-final play-offs by virtue of having scored four more points than Donaghmoyne. The Pearse Brothers, managed by Down duo Jerome Johnston and Mark Doran, returned to winning way in that play-off and saw off last year’s losing finalists Truagh Gaels 3-13 to 0-8 last weekend.
Going back to the most recent Clontibret-Ballybay clash, Conor McManus had a penalty saved in his club’s 0-11 to 1-7 win and Ballybay coach Doran admits the scoreline flattered his men.
“We were poor that day,” said the Longstone native.
“Clontibret just played better than us. They are well coached and they were well set-up. We didn’t perform the way we wanted to perform but you have to give Clontibret credit for that, they didn’t let us perform.
“There’s never been more of a kick of the ball between us but we’re under no illusions about Sunday, we know what we have to do and it’s a massive challenge but it’s one that everybody in Ballybay is looking forward to.
“It’s a semi-final and both clubs will look at it as a brilliant opportunity. We just have to get ourselves right and hopefully we get a massive performance. If our boys go out and give everything, we can’t ask for anything more.”
Clontibret lost their group opener to Donaghmoyne but were without some key personnel, including new Monaghan manager Vinny Corey. Dessie Mone, Ryan McGuigan and Brian Greenan were also absent.
With those players back in harness, the O’Neill’s won their two (against Aughnamullen and Ballybay) and then secured a last-gasp draw against three in-a-row chasing Scotstown, winners of six of the last seven Mick Duffy titles.
Clontibret remain one of the most consistent teams in Ulster and they have quality throughout their ranks and in the likes of Corey, Mone, McManus, Greenan, Conor Boyle, Mick O’Dowd, Francis Hughes, Killian Lavelle.
Champions in 2019, their performances are always at a high level and the finishing ability of the peerless McManus means that, if they do lose, it’s rarely by more than a handful of points.
Ballybay, losing finalists in 2018 and 2020 and beaten semi-finalists last year, are also packed with pedigree and their only championship loss this year was that one-point reverse to Clontibret. Thomas Kerr, Ryan Wylie and evergreen veteran Paul Finlay have been among their star-turns in this campaign and their win over Truagh (the side that knocked them out last season) will have bolstered their confidence for Sunday’s duel at Clones – the precursor to the meeting of Inniskeen and Scotstown (3.45pm).
“It was good to get the win, we wanted to perform and get into the semi-finals and we did that,” said Doran.
“Truagh beat us last year in the semi-final and that was in the back of our minds because we didn’t perform last year. But that game has gone now and all our sights are on Clontibret.”
