Malachy O'Rourke felt a difficult task for Monaghan became an impossible one when they were reduced to 13 men in their heavy defeat to Mayo.

Clare referee Rory Hickey gave Stephen Gollogly his marching orders for a striking offence in the 28th minute and the veteran centre forward was followed for an early shower by Drew Wylie in the 54th minute after he was involved in an altercation with Mark Ronaldson.

"Mayo started off very strong, but we were still very much in the game," the Monaghan boss told the Irish News.

"When Stephen got sent off, it changed the complexion of the game to a degree. It was hard to cope when they had one extra man, but it was almost impossible to stop them coming forward when they had the second extra man.

"But we'd still be disappointed with our own performance and our own defending."

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