SCOTSTOWN’S Kieran Hughes says he was never more relieved to hear the final whistle in a game than when they edged out Burren in their Ulster opener nine days ago.
Hughes was on course for a man-of-the-match award but one rush of blood to the head saw him dismissed on a black card offence after 44 minutes.
At that point, the wheels nearly came off the Monaghan champions. They were 0-11 to 0-4 ahead before the Down champions rattled off six points in a row to make it a one-point game.
In stoppage-time, Shane Carey and Donal Morgan popped up with scores to see Scotstown over the line and set up an intriguing semi-final clash with Eoghan Rua, Coleraine in Omagh this weekend.
Hughes admitted that had Scotstown lost to Burren he would have accepted full responsibility.
“It would have been my fault,” Hughes said.
“That’s the way the headlines would have been written. It would have been 100 per cent my fault. As soon as I went off we just fell apart. I like to be on the field and in control of the game but I couldn’t do anything. I had to sit with the physio and not open my mouth.
“I’m going to blame the brother [Darren] because he gave me a roar for his man coming through and I just stuck the arm out and he fell to the ground and I got the black card. Not that I’m that impressed with the rule. You’re put off the field for something silly like that.”
Scotstown looked like Ulster contenders against Burren but they left their shooting boots at home, racking up 13 first-half wides.
“That Burren game was just pure relief,” said the county ace.
“Anybody that was at that game would realise we were by far the better team and played most of the football. Our wides kept them in it in the first half.
“We, as players, know. There is no point shouting at us on the field because we know we were missing shots so we have to look and see what needs to be sorted ahead of the semi-final.
“We just didn’t win our kick-outs in the second half but then we won a vital bit of possession near the end of the game and got up the field and thankfully Shane Carey took his score.
“That’s the roller-coaster ride of football. It’s crazy stuff. We were the better team for 50 minutes of the game and then Burren got a 10-minute spell and put us on our backs but thankfully we got through that one.”
Although Scotstown have dominated the Monaghan championship for the last four years they still haven’t backed that up on the provincials stage.
Hughes still has bitter memories of Ulster defeats to Kilcoo and Kilcar over the past couple of seasons.
“If you take your eye off the ball in the Ulster Championship you’re out,” he said.
“Last year, Kilcar played us off the park, they just played around us.
“A couple of years ago Kilcoo beat us in Clones. I watched that game a couple of weeks ago and the amount of wides we kicked, myself included, cost us. So we need to learn from our mistakes against Burren for the next day against Coleraine.”
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