Monaghan goalkeeper Rory Beggan is looking forward to renewing acquaintances with Dublin at Croke Park on Sunday.

The Division One semi-final will come just seven days after the Dubs whipped the Farney County in their own backyard and the Ulster side will have to improve dramatically if they are to have any chance of progressing to the decider:

"Any time you get to Croke Park you take it in stride," the Scotstown clubman notes in The Irish Times. "To get there at this time of year is very good for Monaghan football and hopefully we can get a result and go on to the final. But we are preparing for the championship as well so we want to get as many good performances as we can."

Reflecting on Sunday's heavy defeat, the Monaghan custodian adds: "We knew rightly . . . Dublin are really good defensively and don't allow that short kick-out. But they hit us for 1-2 before we could really settle and that put us back a wee bit. The boys showed great character to get us back in the game and then they rallied at us again. But we were aiming for a semi-final and we got there.

"The league for us is about performances. We wanted to get a good performance and to kind of revenge a bit of last year's championship defeat.

"Look, same circumstances really. It wasn't as big a defeat but it got us into the semi-final and we can put a few things right hopefully. But we will have to improve a lot to match these boys next week."

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