Down power to victory
January 20, 2012Down 4-12, Monaghan 0-11.
In their opening game against Armagh Down demonstrated their intent for the coming season with a resounding performance and victory and they sent out another message in Clones on Sunday last as they powered to victory over a disappointing if considerably under strength Monaghan side in this largely one-way contest that attracted an attendance of just over 2000 people. Down laid the foundation for this victory with two scintillating periods either side of half-time, the first that yielded 2-4 in the final 10 minutes of the first half and the second that yielded an unanswered 1-3 in the opening eight minutes of the second-half against a Monaghan side that at that stage were simply chasing shadows. Down were dominant in practically every position, they worked hard in defence, they dominated the aerial exchanges around the middle while in attack they always had options with Marcus Miskelly and Benny Coulter while the towering Kalum King proved a real handful at full forward. The early stages though gave little indication as to how events were going to unfold either side of half-time although even in those earlier stages Down were dominating possession and creating chances but simply not putting them away. Monaghan on the other hand contrived to make life even more difficult for themselves by frittering away hard-won possession, being turned over too easily too often and too many players simply taking the wrong option. Monaghan too lacked the finishing power that Down demonstrated and but for the trusty left boot of Paul Finlay who accounted for 8 of their 11 points Monaghan would have been in even greater trouble.
Teams and Scorers: Down: Michael McAlister, Niall McParland, Daniel McCartan, Damian Turley, Keith Quinn, Kevin Duffin, Mark Doran, Peter Turley, Conor Gough 0-1, Ambrose Rogers 0-1, Aidan Carr 0-1 (f), Dan Gordon 1-1, Marcus Miskelly 0-2, Kalum King 2-0, Benny Coulter 1-3. Subs: Arthur McConville 0-2 for B Coulter, John McAreavey for A Rogers, Kevin Anderson for P Turley, Ciaran Brannigan 0-1 for M Miskelly, Daniel Hughes for K Duffin.
Monaghan: Mark Keogh, Carl O'Connell, Darren Hughes, Dermot Malone, Ronan McNally, Vincent Corey, Donal Morgan, Ciaran Daly, James Turley, Matthew McKenna, Stephen Gollogly, Shane Smyth, Ciaran Hanratty 0-2, Paul Finlay 0-8 (5f), Owen Duffy. Subs: Peter O'Hanlon for C Daly, Conor Galligan for D Morgan, Bernard O'Brien 0-1 for S Gollogly, David Millar for S Smyth, James Bellew for O Duffy. Referee: Barry Cassidy (Derry).
MONAGHAN MANAGER Eamonn McEnaney had seen his team's chances evaporate in something like a 20 minutes spell either side of half-time and he was understandably disappointed not only at the result but at the way the game had unfolded although he was assessing it in the context that he was short anything up to 12 or 13 regulars, seven of whom were on colleges duty. He also stated quite emphatically that the rule regarding colleges having first call on players would have to be seriously examined for next year as far as he was concerned. "Obviously we are not very happy this evening and I'm going to have to describe it as a bridge too far for us this weekend with what we have been doing. We played St Mary's last Sunday and we played Dublin during the week and I think the third game in seven days you could really see the boys tired visibly out there. The boys were upbeat because we had a good win against Dublin but I think today it was just a case that the legs tired. We had also trained hard on Friday night with the National League in mind and you could really see the difference there today. Down on the other hand had an almost full strength team out there today against us with 10 or 11 at least missing, but having said that there are still a lot of things that could be improved on and the boys would be the first to admit that including myself". Tweet
