All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Group 4, round two
Monaghan 1-23 Clare 1-18
ON sunny days like these, Jack McCarron would make you fall in love with Gaelic football again.
There were no cries for shot clocks in Clones on Sunday– just gushing applause for the nine times McCarron split Clare’s posts in an engaging Championship duel that was nip and tuck right up until Conor McCarthy’s superb 70th minute goal which ended the Banner County’s resistance.
McCarthy’s arrowed drive that put five between the sides entering stoppage-time might have prompted the biggest cheer of the afternoon, but the gorgeous copyright of this fixture belonged to another Scotstown man – Jack McCarron.
It’s the way Monaghan’s number 13 moves.
A late substitute in their drawn game against Derry the last day out, McCarron dazzled from start to finish on a baking hot St Tiernach’s Park pitch.
Not only did he dummy and weave his way past the Clare defence, he did the same with awaiting reporters after Sunday’s hard-earned five-point win for Monaghan.
The two-footed McCarron decided that his five-star performance did the talking for him.
The home supporters knew the mercurial ace was on song right from the start when he picked out Ryan O’Toole with a wonderful crossfield pass, which gave his Scotstown club-mate the easiest of tasks of popping over Clare’s crossbar.
In the 18th, 22nd, 28th and 35th minutes, he left the Clare defence dizzy, finding his range each time. Right foot, left foot. Same result.
And there was more to come from McCarron in second half, spinning left and right and bagging four more from play and converting a placed ball.
“Aye, he was serious,” said Monaghan boss Vinny Corey afterwards.
“He’d a great game. It was good to see him make a statement. He didn’t get starting in the last game, and he came out strong today and reminded everybody what he’s capable of doing.”
Staggering as it may sound, Monaghan aren’t the only top-flight team grappling with how to shoehorn supreme poachers into their starting line-up.
Neither Conor McManus nor McCarron started against Derry.
McManus was thrust from the bench on Sunday and helped Monaghan seal the deal, pinching two points after his 45th minute introduction.
“Listen, those two boys have played together an awful lot of times over the years,” Corey said, “and have done a lot this year as well. And have done today as well. I think you can see, when both boys are on top form and both are in there together, they’re hard to handle.”
There was a much looser feel to this tie, the first Championship meeting between the two counties, compared to last week’s Derry-Monaghan encounter.
Knowing that a win was probably the only way they could avoid a Championship exit, Clare were much better than their poor second-half showing they put up against Donegal in Ennis.
Everything they hit in the opening 25 minutes flew between Monaghan’s posts. Keelan Sexton, their top scorer, was lively in the early exchanges while Mark McInerney – a late replacement for Eoin Cleary – hit a couple of cracking scores that allowed the Banner men to keep their noses in front.
The visitors were ahead by three and four points in the opening quarter but they were reeled in just before the interval with Rory Beggan clipping over a ’45 and McCarron grabbing an equalising score in first-half stoppage time (0-10 apiece).
With McCarron on song, Conor McCarthy and Karl O’Connell breaking lines from his wing-back positions and Michael Bannigan and Stephen O’Hanlon constantly probing, Monaghan always looked good for the win.
But Clare hung in there and the visitors showed that if you run at Monaghan, you have a chance.
Jamie Malone’s hard running caused Monaghan problems in the second half and Cathal O’Connor hit two points apiece in each half.
And even when Monaghan tried to create a bit of daylight between themselves and their visitors, Darragh Bohannon flicked the ball to the home side’s net to put Clare 1-11 to 0-13 in front on 45 minutes.
To really cause an upset in a place where Monaghan rarely do upsets, Clare needed to replicate their first-half display but they started to miss a few chances and that extra half yard of space that wasn’t there in the opening half began to appear in the second period.
McCarron and McManus made hay. So, too, did Bannigan and McCarthy who combined brilliantly on numerous occasions down the left side to which Clare had no answer.
And it was this deadly double act that finally slayed Colm Collins’s side. Committing more bodies forward, Monaghan punished them with a brilliant counter-attacking major on 70 minutes.
Gary Mohan’s fantastic kick pass in his own half of the field found the midriff of McManus, a quick off-load, and once Bannigan got on the ball, McCarthy was free again. Boom. McCarthy let fly which put the home side 1-21 to 1-16 in front.
It was the killer strike even though the sides would share the last four points.
Although disappointed with the final result, Collins felt Clare’s overall performance atoned for their tepid display against Donegal a week earlier.
“Mother of God, it was an awful display [against Donegal],” admitted Collins.
“We were extremely disappointed. That game should have been over at half-time. Then we were very poor in the second half.
“To be fair to them today they atoned for that display and showed their true selves. There was some excellent football there, but credit to Monaghan, they got some excellent scores. They have some really accurate, classy forwards who can put the ball away.”
Monaghan: R Beggan (0-1 ’45); R O’Toole (0-1), K Duffy, R Wylie; K O’Connell (0-2), C Boyle, C McCarthy (1-2); K Gallagher (0-1), K Lavelle; S O’Hanlon (0-1), M Bannigan (0-3, 0-1 free), R McAnespie; J McCarron (0-9, 0-1 free), G Mohan (0-1), S Carey Subs: D Hughes for R Wylie (42), C McManus (0-2, 0-1 free) for S Carey (45), K Hughes for K Gallagher (65), C Lennon for K Lavelle (71), D McElearney for R McAnespie (73)
Clare: S Ryan; R Lanigan, C Brennan, C Rouine; C Russell, J Malone (0-2), M Doherty; C O’Connor (0-4), D Bohannon (1-1); D Walsh, E McMahon (0-6, 0-5 frees), P Lillis; M McInerney (0-2, 0-1 free), K Sexton (0-3, 0-1 free), P Collins Subs: A Griffin for P Collins (37), A Sweeney for C Brennan (51), D O’Neill for D Bohannon (55), S Griffin for M McInerney (62), B McNamara for D Walsh (71)
Yellow cards: D Walsh (23), E McMahon (23), P Collins (26), J Malone (35), C Rouine (56)
Referee: N Cullen (Fermanagh)
