Garbiel Bannigan admitted that Monaghan's failure to take advantage of having an extra man for almost the entire game made their All-Ireland SFC quarter-final loss to Louth all the more difficult to accept.

Louth had midfielder Sean Callaghan red-carded after just seven minutes, but still prevailed by 0-27 to 2-18 at Croke Park.

"I suppose it makes it all the more devastating for us that we didn't make good use of that extra man and that's on us," the Farney County boss told the assembled media after his side's championship exit.

"We never managed to find a period in the game where we got completely on top, apart from probably the first seven minutes before the red card when we started really well.

"After that, I don't know whether we went a little bit casual or a little timid, but the energy levels just didn't seem to be there and we just weren't getting our hands on enough ball, creating enough chances and weren't putting scoring runs together.

"The game was very tight."

While debutant goalkeeper Jamie Mooney hardly put a foot wrong, Bannigan admitted that Rory Beggan's injury-enforced absence was a major blow to his team's prospects.

"Jamie is a young lad with plenty of potential and showed up very well in training during the week and his kickout range is very good. He probably didn't get to show that range as well as he could," he continued.

"Come Friday evening, with the testing that was done with Rory, it just wasn't an option to play him, and we had to get on with it.

"Not much I can say on that, but obviously Rory Beggan is a massive loss."

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