CONOR McManus, Rian O’Neill and their clutch capacity may have dominated the discourse that followed Saturday night’s All-Ireland quarter-final, but Darren Hughes deserves to have his name in the mixer.
For the second week in-a-row, the 36-year-old made a crucial play at a crucial time. It is typical of his understated manner - both on and off the field - that those moments somehow managed to slip below the radar once the post-mortem commenced.
So here goes. Rewinding back to Tullamore seven days earlier, Monaghan hadn’t scored in over 20 minutes either side of half-time, and Kildare’s three point lead could easily have been doubled had the Lilywhites not been so profligate in front of goal.
Clinging on by their fingernails, it was Hughes who finally arrested the slide.
Drifting out from his temporary full-forward station 11 minutes into the second half, Hughes collected a Shane Carey pass before slotting over a crucial mark to get the Farneymen back moving.
On Saturday, he made a similarly telling intervention.
A Rory Grugan fisted score followed by a nerveless O’Neill 45 nudged Armagh ahead as the final furlong loomed. While Monaghan probed, the Orchard pressed, attacking space at a premium.
Eventually Gary Mohan took matters into his own hands just after the 57 minute mark, drifting out around the 45 to collect a short Conor Boyle pass, only for the Truagh man’s shot to skew right, hanging in the night sky for what felt like an eternity.
Darren Hughes was standing on the edge of the small square when the ball left Mohan’s boot but, as seven orange jerseys converged towards the space where they thought it would drop, the Scotstown man bounded out and rose majestically, claiming the ball clean and clasping to his midriff.
Surrounded upon arrival back on earth, Hughes then had the awareness and presence of mind to instantly slip the ball off to Miceal Bannigan, the Aughnamullan man’s shot fizzing up and over the bar to make it 0-11 apiece.
In a game of moments rather than relentless magic, this was a big one.
And Hughes would have taken a penalty once the shoot-out came around, don’t worry about that. Brother Kieran might be the one blessed with the cultured left boot, demonstrated with two cool conversions, but Darren was there if needed.
“I did, I put my hand up but I didn’t make the cut,” he smiled, “to be fair there’s a chance I might’ve cramped up in the middle of it…”
Facing high-octane Championship games three weeks in-a-row would take a toll on most but, as boss Vinny Corey has been at pains to point out all year, his Monaghan side – and the men he soldiered alongside for so long – are made of different stuff.
Late wins came in the final League game against Mayo in Castlebar, securing Monaghan’s Division One status for another year, then Tyrone in Ulster three weeks later.
The round robin draw with Derry came courtesy of Karl O’Connell’s last-gasp score, Conor McCarthy’s winner at O’Connor Park, and now coming out the right side of penalty drama to send the Farney into a first All-Ireland semi-final since 2018.
“Vinny knows a lot of us,” said Hughes.
“When it comes to managing the players, obviously we’re all looking to play, but he has a plan too – he knows what’s in us, knows who to trust and when to push our boundaries too when you’re carrying injuries.
“He was sort of planning from this point back all year, and it’s come to fruition now for him. It was a big win - probably an emotional rollercoaster there.
“We thought we had it won then we thought we were out of it...we came here fully expecting to win the game, thankfully the result pulled through in the end.
“Look we enjoy it, we love it. When you know you’re not that far away it’s easy to come back. We’re well battle-hardened now - we’ve lost enough big games through the years, disappointing results, you can look back at them and use them one or two ways.
“It generally galvinises us for the next year going in. We have to play well every day we go out, and we’re starting to reach performance levels that deserve to be in an All-Ireland semi-final.”
And Corey couldn’t agree more, saluting his band of thirty-somethings once more as Monaghan look ahead to that last four showdown with Dublin on July 15.
“They want to go to the well, they want to keep going,” he said.
“They didn't care that there was three games in-a-row, they didn't care that there was extra-time. They wanted to fight to the end. That's what we got out of them. So it wouldn't have mattered me telling Darren Hughes that 'listen, you've had a match last week' - he wouldn't give a damn.
“Karl O'Connell is the same… we actually took Karl off in the second half of extra-time and he gave out to us, he wanted back in. We thought he’d got a bang on the head but he wanted more.
“They're just built for that.”
