Gooch fires Kerry to victory but ref rumpus taints thriller

Monaghan 0-13 Kerry 1-11

Declan O’Sullivan was the catalyst for the game’s defining moment when, running out of defence with ball in hand, he found his progress unceremoniously halted by Monaghan half-forward Stephen Gollogly, who leapt aboard his back.

Incensed, O’Sullivan swatted his assailant aside with what was a shove rather than a strike but, rather than throw in the ball, referee Cormac O’Reilly awarded the free to the visitors.

Play eventually continued after much remonstration from the Monaghan bench and, when Cooper received possession, he made light of an afternoon where his radar was unusually inaccurate to slot the winning score.

O’Reilly was loudly heckled by a small knot of local supporters on his way to the dressing room seconds later but one of his umpires was on the ground receiving attention shortly afterwards having apparently been struck on his way off the pitch.

O’Reilly was visibly upset and is expected to make a full report on the incident to Croke Park. It was an unfortunate ending to a game that had captivated the crowd after a slow-burning opening quarter.

“I felt there should have been a hop ball but I have enough things to be worrying about myself to be worrying about the problems the referee has,” said Monaghan manager Seamus McEnaney. “That’s football. That’s life. We were unlucky not to get a draw.”

Touted as one of Ulster’s up and coming forces, Monaghan looked anything but during the first half, a period when Kerry themselves had their own problems.

In truth, Monaghan will know that they will rarely have a better chance to claim such a prized scalp and, with only two points from their first four games, this was a potentially knockout blow to their hopes of survival in Division One.

Though frequently careless with their final ball in the opening exchanges, Kerry were clearly the better team, with Kieran Donaghy ruling the skies above Scotstown early on. With both Gooch and Mike Frank Russell curiously off colour, it took time for that dominance to translate onto the scoreboard.

It was still Cooper who engineered their big break, flicking a clever pass from the left for Eoin Brosnan to latch onto before shooting low past Shane Duffy and into the Monaghan net.

At that point, 30 minutes in, Monaghan looked like sliding into the abyss.

“That was a bad goal to let in but we’re not a team to crumble,” said McEnaney. “That left five points between the teams and a lot of people might have thought that the game was done and dusted but we fought back, took the lead at one stage and, I thought we were going to win it.

“We went into this game without our regular midfield of Eoin Lennon and Dick Clerkin. That’s a big hole out of any team and I’m sure if Kerry came up here without Darragh Ó Sé and young Donaghy, it would be the same.”

Maybe so, but Monaghan still had enough about them to regroup and hurl themselves into the task of pulling their illustrious opponents in. Three points in the next five minutes left them only 1-4 to 0-5 down at the interval and the fightback only gathered pace on the switch of ends.

With 20 minutes to go a point from Paul Finlay - their anchor from midfield in that period - finally drew them level. By now they were pouring forward, and though they twice pulled ahead, Kerry cleared their heads and came back with renewed intent.

Jack O’Connor shuffled his pack in around the half’s midway point, with Paddy Kelly, Aodhan MacGearailt and Tommy Griffin joining the front, and the tide slowly began to turn back in their favour.

Declan O’Sullivan was denied a goal with a finger-tip save from Duffy that went wide off a post but the Dromid Pearses man did help himself to a pair of points, with Cooper’s two frees also playing their part in establishing the bedrock for the two points.

“We were patchy enough,” was Jack O’Connor’s verdict. “Monaghan were fighting for their lives. We would have settled for the draw late on because we had a couple of chances ourselves but over-elaborated.

“We kept giving the ball away and we weren’t supporting each other the way we normally would. Monaghan played very well and we knew that would be the case coming up here. The pitch was very greasy on top and it was a nice, compact ground with the crowd right on top of you so it was always going to be difficult.”

MONAGHAN: S Duffy; C Flanagan, J Coyle, D Morgan; D McArdle, V Corey, P McGuigan; B McKenna, P Finlay (0-3, 2f); E Duffy, D Freeman (0-2), S Gollogly (0-2); R Woods (0-3), H McElroy (0-2f), T Freeman (0-1).

Subs: S Smyth for McGuigan (18), C Hanratty for Duffy (47), K Sheerin for Smyth (68).

KERRY: K Cremin; M Ó Sé, M McCarthy, T O’Sullivan; T Ó Sé, A O’Mahony, M Lyons; D Ó Sé, K Donaghy; S O’Sullivan (0-3), E Fitzmaurice (0-1), E Brosnan (1-0); C Cooper (0-3, 2f), D O’Sullivan (0-3), MF Russell.

Subs: P Kelly for Russell (49), A MacGearailt for Donaghy (56), T Griffin for S O’Sullivan (60).

Referee: C O’Reilly (Meath).