Monaghan secured their place in the Super 8s courtesy of today's round 4 qualifier win over Laois and manager Malachy O'Rourke is looking forward to the challenge of taking on Kildare at GAA HQ next weekend.

"Since we got knocked out of the Ulster championship our goal was to get to the Super 8s," he remarked to BBC Sport. "We managed to navigate our way through the first two games and then it was always going to be a tougher game today.

"I thought we played well for a lot of the game. The second-half we maybe got a wee bit sloppy at times. So, look it, just delighted to get through the game and delighted to be in the Super 8s."

When asked for his initial thoughts on next weekend's Super 8 opener against the Lilywhites in Croke Park, the Farney County's boss answered: "Our initial thoughts are that it's going to be a really, really tough game.

"We've seen Kildare the last two weekends. They've got great momentum behind them. They've had a couple of tough scrapes to get through and that hardens a team. Then they really took off the last couple of weekends.

"They've got some really athletic players, they're scoring for fun so we know it's going to be a really tough game. We'll have to really bring our A game if we want to be competitive in it. That's what the challenge will be."

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