Allianz Football League Division One round four: Monaghan 0-14 Roscommon 0-11
“D’YE ever watch a car crash in slow motion lads?”
Davy Burke’s demeanour is very different from it was seven days ago after beating Armagh. Roscommon’s unbeaten run is gone and he’s half glad that it is.
He rips through, smiling nonetheless, the “nonsense” that’s been spoken about them in terms of fitness and head starts and whatnot. And then he insists their bubble isn’t burst by this defeat.
Mayo and Kerry in their next two will test its durability.
But he could see this coming, and he wasn’t the only one.
Monaghan tend not to lose in Clones very often. Just three league defeats in the last six years, all of them by less than a goal, is a record any team would take on their home patch.
It wasn’t that they hit Roscommon with any big blitz, no significant match-winning purple patch. In a game that took an absolute age to warm up into anything, the hosts were just always the better of it.
Jack McCarron might not win the sprints in training but nobody would touch him for skills. Towards the end he dropped a pass into Sean Jones’ path of far greater quality than Aidan O’Shea’s to James Carr on Saturday night. Had Jones finished it rather than firing wide, you’d be seeing it on a loop.
McCarron hit four, two from play. Michéal Bannigan’s fine spring has been helped by Vinny Corey giving him a position and playing him in it. He kicked three points and was excellent again.
Rory Beggan’s restarts helped too. The spotlight above him has dimmed of late but he remains capable of prising a team apart. His ability to find Dessie Ward’s runs was invaluable.
For having plenty of the ball, Roscommon carried very little threat. Ben O’Carroll got two points but they were both superb efforts out of nothing when they were chasing the game down late on. For 55 minutes, Ryan O’Toole had him on a tight leash.
Same with Kieran Duffy on Enda Smith, whose influence was completely marginalised. The Murtaghs both probed but caused no bodily harm to a Monaghan defence that has been greatly solidified by the return of Darren Hughes in his deep-lying midfield role.
“A freak,” Michéal Bannigan called him in the best possible sense afterwards.
“He’s 36 and they say he’s never pulled a muscle in his life.”
Monaghan were able to bask once more in the adulation of their adoring crowd, who don’t need much of an excuse to get down on the pitch afterwards. Among them stands Drew Wylie, recently departed, but still very much of them.
If they’re able to pass Division One status on for another year, it will be up there with the most remarkable of all their remarkable escapes. Nul point after two games, they’re likely one win away from safety now. Galway and Mayo away sandwich Tyrone at home. That Ulster derby will most likely tell the tale for both teams.
“Not even looking at Tyrone yet,” says Vinny Corey.
“Galway is the next game. With us in regards to the league, we probably travel light between games. We don’t carry a whole pile of baggage.
“We take the learnings we need to take and we move on. We don’t get bogged down in all the relegation talk, what could happen, all the permutations.
“That will be the same again this week, we’ll go down to Galway and we know it will be really tough. Dunno what way that went today,” he says of Galway’s draw in Donegal.
“A draw? Well there you go. Just goes to show you don’t know what’s around the corner.”
The game’s first five minutes of one miss after the other at both ends was finally punctured by Diarmuid Murtagh. It was the only time Roscommon led, and for all of about a minute. They only got level once, at 0-5 apiece, and were thankful to two fine Richard Hughes scores, one off either foot, for giving them some attacking reward in a poor first half.
Monaghan led by 0-7 to 0-5 at the break but were then more potent against the wind, carrying hard and hurting their visitors. Karl O’Connell’s last 25 minutes were a reminder of what he brings. Ryan Wylie got up to score a fisted effort, and sub Sean Jones should have finished the game but flashed his goal chance wide with three in it.
Black cards for Diarmuid Murtagh and Ben O’Carroll were both very harsh on Roscommon. Darren Hughes was cute on Murtagh’s, grabbing the arm in the tackle, while O’Carroll’s stoppage-time card was more of a booking for a high tackle, not a pull down as referee Niall Cullen intimated.
Davy Burke had his own inimitable complaints but none of them firmly held. The ref didn’t beat them, we beat ourselves was the synopsis, and he was right.
Roscommon’s bubble is trying desperately to keep its shape.
Monaghan’s abode, when it comes to Division One football and Clones, is more bomb shelter than bubble.
MATCH STATS
Monaghan: R Beggan (0-1 free); T McPhillips, R O’Toole; R Wylie (0-1), K Duffy, D Ward (0-1), C Boyle; D Hughes, G Mohan (0-1); S O’Hanlon, S Carey, M Bannigan (0-3, 0-1 free), K Gallagher (0-1); C McCarthy (0-1); J McCarron (0-4, 0-2 frees)
Subs: K O’Connell for Mohan (44), S Jones for Carey (49), C McManus for Gallagher (58), K Lavelle for McCarron (68)
Cards: None
Roscommon: C Carroll; C Daly, D Murray; R Hughes (0-2), D Ruane, B Stack (0-1), N Daly; T O’Rourke, K Doyle; R Dolan, E Smith (0-1), D Murtagh (0-2, 0-1 free), C Lennon; C Murtagh (0-2 frees), B O’Carroll (0-2)
Subs: D Cregg for Doyle (42), N Kilroy (0-1) for Ruane (48), D Smith for Hughes (48), R Fallon for McCarthy (62), C Cox for D Murtagh (65)
Black cards: D Murtagh (55), B O’Carroll (72)
Yellow cards: N Daly (60), C Murtagh (72), D Murray (73)
Referee: N Cullen (Fermanagh)
