ALLIANZ HURLING LEAGUE DIV. 4.

Monaghan 2-13
Longford 1-12

Monaghan now sit on top of division 4 of the Allianz Hurling league following their victory over Longford in Inniskeen on Sunday last in a game that was in the balance all through with the home side securing victory in a strong finish to wipe away the memories of the last meeting between these sides when Longford cruised to a facile victory.
Played in ideal conditions this was a most entertaining affair between two evenly matched teams and while mistakes abounded it was nevertheless always an interesting contest with never more than a couple of points between the sides at any stage.
Monaghan made just one change from the team that defeated Fermanagh the previous Sunday for this top of the table clash with Aidan Og McAnespie who missed out on the Fermanagh game coming in for the unavailable Seamus Loftus and putting in a fine display at centre back.
Longford were forced to make a couple of late changes one of which paid rich dividends with Garrett Ghee coming in for Conor Egan and finishing top scorer with 1-10, accounting for all but two of Longford scores. He was a constant threat to the Monaghan defence with his tricky footwork, excellent stick work and unerring accuracy. He got best support from centre back Robert Ryland, John Lynam, Sean Browne and John Newman and but for his accuracy Longford would have struggled on the scoreboard. For Monaghan it was a case of needing to step up their game in the second-half after they had played second fiddle to Longford from most of the opening period. However, when the question was asked and the game was there for the winning Monaghan showed that they had the reserves of courage and commitment to strike for victory. Sound defensive work was one of the keys to Monaghan's success with Paul Murphy at full-back and Aidan Og McAnespie at centre orchestrating their colleagues to good effect and goalkeeper Gerard Ruddy playing a vital part and unable to do very much about the one shot that beat him. Brian Phelan and Trevor Hilliard worked hard in midfield, an area where Longford were quite strong while up front Sean Leonard worked extremely hard as did Brian McGuigan, Michael Lennon and Ronan Meegan with Michael McHugh finishing top scorer with eight points, all from frees. McHugh in fact opened the scoring with a point from a free in the second minute but Longford then registered three on the trot, two by Garrett Ghee, one from a free, and one by John Newman to lead by two after just seven minutes. Monaghan were back to parity by the 10th minute with a pointed free by McHugh and a good effort from play by Trevor Hilliard but again Longford quickly regained the lead with points from John Minnock and another converted free by Garrett Ghee to lead by two entering the second quarter. As had happened earlier though the accuracy of Michael McHugh from frees brought Monaghan back to parity by the 24th minute but four minutes later Longford had opened a four points lead with a goal and a point by Garrett Ghee, the goal in the 28th minute when he sent a screamer to the roof of the Monaghan net following good work by Eoin Donnellan and John Minnock. Monaghan pulled back a point through Brian Phelan but Longford had the last say when Ciaran Finucane pointed in stoppage time to give Longford a four points advantage of the break, Longford 1-7, Monaghan 0-6.
Within 45 seconds of the resumption Monaghan had it down to a one point game when the Longford goalkeeper Patrick Cullen was adjudged to have carried the ball over the line after he took possession from a centre by Brian McGuigan, the score hotly disputed by Longford after the match. Michael McHugh pointed a free in the second minute to bring Monaghan level and that set the tone for a second half that was a nip and tuck affair with scores exchanged at regular intervals. Garrett Ghee restored Longford to the lead in the sixth minute, Michael McHugh equalised for Monaghan in the ninth but only after an effort from Ronan Meegan had come back off the Longford crossbar. Michael McHugh restored Monaghan to the lead in the 12th minute but that man Garrett Ghee scored twice inside a minute, one an opportunist score at the end of a counter attack and the second an excellent strike from distance to give Longford a one point advantage going into the final 15 minutes. With 10 minutes left to play a Monaghan had re-taken the lead with a point by Michael Lennon and a huge strike by Michael McHugh from a free some 65 metres out along the sideline. Approaching the half-hour mark Sean Leonard put Monaghan two in front following goalmouth incidents at either end. John McAnespie then picked off a nice score from out on the left wing to put Monaghan three in front and things looking good for the home side. However they had to withstand a strong Longford onslaught in the final five minutes with two points from frees by Garrett Ghee making it a one point game with two minutes of normal time remaining. Longford now threw everything into attack and Monaghan had to defend stoutly with Paul Murphy, Declan Crowe and Gerard Ruddy coming to their aid but Longford goalkeeper Patrick Cullen also had to be on his toes to thwart a Monaghan counter-attack as the game went into stoppage time. Two minutes into stoppage time Monaghan sealed the issue, when Michael Lennon got the vital touch to a centre from Ronan Meegan, to deflect the ball past Patrick Cullen to leave Monaghan winners by four points at the final whistle.
Teams and Scorers: Monaghan: Gerard Ruddy, Peter Treanor, Paul Murphy, Aidan Kerr, Declan Crowe, Aidan Og McAnespie, John McAnespie 0-1, Brian Phelan 0-1, Trevor Hilliard 0-1, Michael Lennon 1-1, Sean Leonard 0-1, Kevin Boylan, Ronan Meegan, Michael McHugh 0-8 (8f), Brian McGuigan 1-0. Subs: Dermot Byrne for K Boylan.
Longford: Patrick Cullen, Brendan Stakem, Thomas Stakem, Fergal Daly, Rory Donnellan, Robert Ryland, John Lynam, Eoin Donnellan, Seanie Stakem, Ciaran Funucane 0-1, Garrett Ghee 1-10 (0-4f), John Newman 0-1, John Minnock, Sean Browne, Mark Cassidy. Subs: Eoghna Kavanagh for M Cassidy. Referee: Garrett Duffy (Antrim).

REACTION.
Monaghan manager Frank Brady was pleased with the result in Inniskeen on Sunday last but was even more pleased with the character that his side showed in the second-half, mounting a strong challenge and carrying the game to the opposition in contrast to a somewhat faltering first half display. The result puts Monaghan in pole position in division 4 but Frank Brady refused to speak in terms of Monaghan and Longford contesting the division 4 final as he said there were a couple of obstacles like Cavan and Leitrim to be surmounted first.
FRANK BRADY
Frank Brady agreed first of all that maximum points so far was reason enough to be pleased. "Yes we are pleased with the result and pleased with the second-half performance which was excellent but I couldn't say the same of the first half. We did have some hard words and probably moved some furniture in the dressing rooms at half-time but that had to be done and fair play to the lads they picked it up and went on to win the game and to be honest I think we won it a little bit more comfortably than the score line would suggest. I don't know what was wrong, we were sluggish in the first half and we didn't seem to want it for whatever reason but we got focused at half-time and Monaghan came out and proved how good a team they can be especially coming up near the end when Longford mounted sustained pressure but the boys stood up very well in a tight finish".
The result puts Monaghan top of division four while Longford had four points coming into the game so did Frank Brady feel it was too soon to talk about a Monaghan v Longford division 4 final. "Far too soon, far too soon, we have to go to Cavan next week and Cavan is always a hard place for us to go. That's our focus from today on and we will go and try and win that one and then its Leitrim the Sunday after that, so there is nothing clear cut as yet but one thing is for certain, we cannot afford any slip ups".
Frank Brady was pleased to report that his team had come through the game unscathed with no injuries to report and he was hopeful that a couple of players who were unavailable for Sunday would be ready to face Cavan. "Seamus Loftus was unavailable today because of a family commitment but he will be back the next day and hopefully Eanna MacSuibhne will be available which would be great. Hopefully there are a few more fellas who will be getting fitter now over the next week or so and that will give us more choices". So where will Frank Brady be looking for an improvement for their next outing against Cavan. "I suppose we have to try and cut out the mistakes because players took the wrong option out there today on at least four or five occasions when we should have just done the simple thing and put points on the board. Instead we seemed to look for the soft goal which wasn't going to come today so we will be looking for an improvement there but overall it's a great result and a very good performance".

LONGFORD MANAGER TOM LYNAM.
Frank Brady's Longford counterpart Tom Lynam was a disappointed man in contrast, disappointed at losing but disappointed too that his side did not maintain the momentum they generated in the first half. He also seriously questioned the goal that Monaghan were awarded in the opening minute of the second-half, a score he felt that had a bearing on the trend that developed in the game thereafter. Like Frank Brady he too refused to consider Monaghan and Longford as the favourites for the division 4 final but he was hopeful that a number of regulars who were unavailable for a variety of reasons at this moment in time would be available over the coming weeks to help Longford get back into contention.
"We are disappointed here today because that was a game we had a chance of winning for a long time. We came here today to win. We had four points coming into today's game and Monaghan had four points coming in so it was going to be a big game with the two teams at the top of the table and its always good to get games like that and keep winning. We hoped to keep winning today but that hasn't happened".
The Longford manager had seen late replacement in Garrett Ghee have a major impact, scoring 1-10 which was all but two of Longford scores so he had to be pleased with that. "Yes, Garrett missed out on training there because of some personal matters and he wasn't due to start today but against that he's a great player and I was delighted to be able to bring him in". The Longford manager felt that his side had not translated their first-half dominance into sufficient scores because they had dominated play. "I suppose you could look at it that way but we felt we were in a good enough place at half-time because we had done reasonably well. I thought we handled Monaghan's threat well and we were happy with where we were. We were in the lead but then we gave away that early goal but I'm not sure it was a goal. In fact I would question it. The goalkeeper might have been on the line but his hand was forward but the goal was given and I think that was the big turning point". Asked if he would agree that it looked like a Monaghan v Longford division 4 final, Tom Lynam, like Frank Brady, dismissed the suggestion out of hand as being irrelevant and premature. "It's absolutely too early. Monaghan won today so they are a little bit on the way to that but when you don't win it puts more pressure on for the next day. I believe Fermanagh won well today which brings them back in and we play them next so we have to refocus. We wanted to win today and if we had we would be fairly sure we would be in the final but there is still a fair bit to go". So where would Tom Lynam be looking for the most improvement. "Quite honestly with us its not so much about improvement and this is not sour grapes but in every game so far we have been missing three or four of our top players for a variety of reasons, different players each time and again we were missing four or five today so the biggest improvement for me would be to get a full team out and that would be us at our best and we would see how it went after that". Tweet

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