U21s fail to Erne their stripes
December 30, 2009
It was a disappointing year for Monaghan's U21 footballers, who lost to Fermanagh in the preliminary round of the Ulster championship at Emyvale on Wednesday March 11. Preparations seemed to have gone well when Monaghan once more qualified for the final of the Shamrock Cup but, alas, their annual good run in that pre-season tournament was no more than a false dawn. When you fail to score for three-quarters of an Ulster championship match, there can only really be one outcome…
News that the Cremartin club would once again run its increasingly-popular four-team intercounty U21 football tournament was greeted favourably in Monaghan, who had won the competition outright in 2008 (only to crash out of the championship at the first hurdle). Down, Armagh and Tyrone completed the Shamrock Cup field in 2009 and Monaghan opened their campaign against Down on Saturday February 7 - a repeat of the '08 decider (which went to a replay before the host county prevailed).
The competition was played out over a few weeks. After defeating Down, Monaghan beat Armagh and then suffered two very narrow defeats to Tyrone. As preparations for the main event go, it was pretty encouraging.
The players used the tournament to put in plenty of match time and hopes were high going into the Ulster championship. However, much to the disappointment of everybody involved, it all counted for nothing when a Kevin Connolly goal seven minutes from the end sent Monaghan crashing out of the 2009 Ulster U21 FC at the preliminary-round stage, on a 1-7 to 1-6 scoreline under lights at Emyvale on the second Wednesday in March.
Indeed, Monaghan's record at U21 level over the past five years makes for rather grim reading. While they have qualified for three successive Shamrock Cup finals, winning the competition outright once, it's all about the championship and - apart from a magnificent run to the provincial decider in 2007 - Monaghan have failed to impress in the provincial U21 FC in recent times. They've lost in the first round in four of the last five championship campaigns - a statistic that'll bring little warmth to Monaghan GAA fans or chiefs.
Monaghan's 2009 U21 conquerors Fermanagh were deserving winners on the day and could have won by a greater margin but for some wasteful shooting. For Monaghan's part, they just fell apart in the second half after setting themselves up for what promised to be a comfortable win. Darren Bishop netted in the eleventh minute and the hosts led by 1-6 to 0-3 at half time. But it was the Erne County who coped best with the demanding conditions upon the restart and they had halved their arrears by the end of the third quarter.
The decisive Fermanagh goal arrived in the 53rd minute and out-of-sorts Monaghan had chances to force a replay but were unable to do so. All in all, a forgettable display from a disappointing young team.
With all due respect to the opposition, Monaghan would have expected to deal with the challenge of Fermanagh in the Cadbury's Ulster U21 championship, but unfortunately this display was more Buttons than Dairy Milk. The game was played in extremely difficult conditions, with an unforgiving cross-field wind and driving rain, but it was the same for both sides, so no excuses to be found there…
Martin McElroy opened the scoring for Monaghan in the fifth minute after the visitors had registered a couple of early wides. The hosts went on to dominate the opening quarter and scored 1-4 before Fermanagh got up and running. Darren Bishop half-volleyed Paul Grant's delivery to the net after eleven minutes and the same player also added a brace of first-half points. Further points from McElroy (2) and midfielder Brian McArdle had the rampant hosts in a commanding eight-point lead at the end of the first quarter, 1-6 to 0-1. Amazingly, Monaghan wouldn't score again in the 2009 Ulster U21 FC.
Fermanagh bossed the second quarter and knocked over two points to trail by just six at the break. All three of their first-half points came from the boot of Tomas Corrigan and the winners-elect should have been closer at the short whistle but their finishing had left a lot to be desired.
Fermanagh then hit four points without reply to trail by just two with 13 minutes remaining. Then came the goal that handed them passage to the first-round proper. The second half was a nightmare for Monaghan and the story of the match can be summed up by the scoring from that second half-hour: Fermanagh hit 1-4, while Monaghan failed to raise a single flag after the resumption.
The players won't need to be told that when you go 45 minutes of a game of football without registering a score, then you invariably lose. In the end, Fermanagh managed 1-6 without reply in those 45 minutes to fall across the winning line, meeting with little or no resistance.
It really was a shock defeat. Remember, Monaghan had beaten Down and Armagh and had twice ran Tyrone close in the weeks leading up to this match. To then go almost 50 minutes without a score as they completely lost their way was close to inexplicable. Little wonder co-manager Gerard Caulfield was so despondent after the final whistle. Though gracious in his praise of Fermanagh, he knew his team had shot themselves in the foot:
"Yes, the boys did show a little bit of over-confidence in the second quarter, but we were going well. Having said that, I felt we started playing the ball into the corners a lot and we got bottled up and that played into Fermanagh's hands. We never used the square properly. At this level of football, if you play it into the corners it has to come back out very quickly or you will lose it. That happened to us quite a lot.
"We had chances and had we taken some of the simple chances that we had, then we would probably have won the game. You can't crib - when you get chances 15 yards out and you don't put them over the bar, you can't complain.
"We struggled to get the ball up in the opening 10-15 minutes of the second half but in the last 15 minutes got it up a lot. We started to win breaks at midfield and win good ball but when we got it into the attack, we looked for goals when points were there for the taking and at other times we tried for points from long distances. That is what beat us at the finish."
Monaghan, 2009 Ulster U21 FC V Fermanagh: Niall McCarthy; Darren Duffy, Kevin Hughes, David Hughes; Conor Galligan, Colm Greenan, Drew Wylie; Neil McAdam, Brian McArdle (0-1); James Turley, Dermot Malone, Martin McElroy (0-3); Paul Grant, Daniel McNally, Darren Bishop (1-2). Subs: Pauric Donaghy for J Turley, Seamus Markey for D McNally, Peter O'Hara for B McArdle.
As ever, Monaghan's preparations for the 2009 U21 championship centred around squad training sessions and a good run to the Shamrock Cup final, which was played against Tyrone on Wednesday March 4. There were also a couple of interesting challenge games, including one against would-be Leinster champions Dublin in Parnell Park.
During these preparations, Monaghan had a settled look about them with Kieran Hughes and Neil McAdam manning the central positions in defence. Losing Matthew McKenna to a four-week suspension after his sending-off in the first half of the Shamrock Cup clash with Armagh was a telling blow, and the management had to reshuffle their pack as a consequence. Still, there was great hope in the Monaghan camp that they possessed the firepower to shoot down the Fermanagh defence at least.
In the Shamrock Cup, the management duo of Gerard Caulfield and Dermot Maguire got off to the best possible start when the holders beat Down by 1-12 to 1-6 in the first round at sunny-but-cold Cloghan on February 7. Playing with wind advantage in the first half, they built a nine-point interval cushion and held on for a comfortable win.
Monaghan, 2009 Shamrock Cup Round One V Down: Niall McCarthy; Darren Duffy, Kieran Hughes, Colm Greenan; Drew Wylie, Neil McAdam (0-1), Paraic Donaghy (0-1); Brian McArdle, Matthew McKenna (0-2); James Turley (0-2), Paul Grant, Martin McElroy (0-2); Dermot Malone (1-1), Daniel McNally (0-1), Darren Bishop (0-2). Subs: Patrick Tavey for D McNally, Peter O'Hara for B McArdle, Conor Galligan for P Donaghy, Mark McDevitt for D Malone, Emmet Caulfield for K Hughes.
On Thursday February 12, Monaghan made it maximum points from two outings in a week in the Cremartin tournament when they overcame Armagh by 1-13 to 1-7, to assure themselves of a place in the final for a third successive year. Again played at Cloghan, this was a hard-hitting encounter under lights and the win was all the more commendable considering that the Oriel County played with 14 men for 32 minutes following the dismissal of Matthew McKenna for striking. Ultimately, that sending-off may have been a turning point in their season… The Inniskeen man never appeared for the county U21s again in 2009, as they fell to three defeats in a row.
Monaghan, 2009 Shamrock Cup Round Two V Armagh: Niall McCarthy; David Hughes, Kieran Hughes (0-1), Colm Greenan; Drew Wylie, Neil McAdam, Paraic Donaghy; Brian McArdle (0-3), Matthew McKenna; James Turley, Paul Grant, Martin McElroy (0-2); Dermot Malone, Daniel McNally (0-2), Darren Bishop (1-4). Subs: Conor Galligan for P Grant, Peter O'Hara for D Malone, Dean Fanning for J Turley, Mark McDevitt for D McNally, Patrick Kierans (0-1) for M McElroy.
Tyrone provided opposition in the third group game and Monaghan could consider themselves desperately unlucky to come out on the wrong end of a 1-13 to 2-9 scoreline after a thriller in Trillick. Monaghan lost Darren Bishop prior to throw-in but his replacement Donal Hahessey caused the Red Hand defence no end of problems. Monaghan were also unfortunate when a foul on goalkeeper Niall McCarthy was allowed to go unpunished in the prelude to Tyrone's goal. But they were through to the final anyway, regardless of the outcome of this one.
Monaghan, 2009 Shamrock Cup Round ThreeV Tyrone: Niall McCarthy; Darren Duffy, Colm Greenan, David Hughes; Conor Galligan (0-1), Neil McAdam (1-0), Drew Wylie; Seamus Markey, Brian McArdle; James Turley, Dermot Malone (0-1) Martin McElroy (0-3); Mark McDevitt, Daniel McNally (0-1) Donal Hahessey (0-3). Subs: Paddy Kierans for J Turley, Emmett Caulfield for D McNally, Kieran Hughes for B McArdle, Niall McMeel (1-0) for S Markey, Paul Lambe for D Wylie.
The final was played at St Oliver Plunkett Park, Emyvale on Wednesday March 4 and Tyrone once more provided the opposition. Again, Monaghan put in a battling performance in a hectic, frantic, high-octane encounter and were a little unfortunate to be edged out by just two points, 2-10 to 2-8. Daniel McNally opened the scoring with a second-minute goal and Martin McElroy netted in the 26th minute, but Monaghan trailed by 2-5 to 2-2 at the interval and could never get back on level terms thereafter.
Monaghan 2009 Shamrock Cup final V Tyrone: Niall McCarthy; Colm Greenan, Kieran Hughes, David Hughes; Conor Galligan, Neil McAdam, Drew Wylie; Peter O'Hara, Brian McArdle, Paraic Donaghy. Paul Grant (0-1), Martin McElroy (1-4); Darren Bishop (0-1). Daniel McNally (1-1), Donal Hahessey (0-1). Subs: James Turley for P Donaghy, Dermot Malone for D Bishop.
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