Finlay goal crucial as Monaghan storm clear
“The lads showed real character today”, said manager Seamus McEnaney, “but it was a match we knew we needed a performance in because we were not happy with our second-half performances in our last two matches.
“We knew the performances were in the lads and we saw today that it was. We used 16 or 17 fellows today and, basically, no-one had just an average game so any changes we had to make were easy”.
Monaghan were dominant for the greater part of this tough hard-hitting contest, their forward division in particular having too much pace and power for a Meath rearguard that was repeatedly stretched to breaking point.
Midfield was a battle royal with little by way of clean possession, but it was Monaghan’s superior ability to exploit broken play that saw Rory Woods, in particular, play some excellent ball in to the inside forwards where Tomas Freeman was in devastating form and Vincent Corey was back to his best.
So is Coreys’ best position on the square? “Now is the time of year for trying things out. The months of March and April are times for looking at things like that, but, who knows who’s going to be there in the next match against Cork. Vinny did very well today but Raymond Ronaghan has a lot to offer this team.
“We knew the lads out there today were up for the job from the form they have been showing in training games. It is very important for us to have those matches to assess the performances in the training games and whoever is doing well in training and whoever is playing well in those matches will be in the team. There is a real battle on for places now and that is the way we want it to be”, continued McEnaney. Meath, on the other hand, relied almost exclusively on the accuracy of Cian Ward from frees and his tally of seven points, six frees and one ‘45. tells its own story.
“I was very disappointed with our first-half performance, said Meath boss Colm Coyle. We just stood back and let Monaghan dictate the pace. They were more aggressive going for the ball, snapped up all the breaks and at stages they looked a hundred miles ahead of us. For the second-half we made a few changes and the boys upped the ante a bit but, quite honestly, we left ourselves with too much to do, it’s as simple as that”.
Monaghan were never headed after Paul McGuigan opened with an excellent point in the fourth minute. But it was a well crafted 10th minute Paul Finlay goal that set Monaghan up for a dominant first-half at the end of which they led by six points.
Paul Finlay and Tomas Freeman did most of the damage, Freeman in particular leading Meath a merry dance and it was a surprise that Eoin Harrington was left as his marker for so long as Monaghan led 1-7 to 0-4 at the break.
Meath were a transformed team on the resumption and upped the tempo considerably to put Monaghan under a fair degree of pressure during the third quarter. They outscored the home side by three points to one in that period but their lack of penetration was illustrated by the fact that all three points were from frees by Ward.
Monaghan weathered the storm to strike for three points inside five minutes from Vincent Corey, Eoin Lennon and Stephen Gollogly to give them a cushion that saw them ride out another period of the pressure by the visitors late on.
Points by Cian Ward and Graham Reilly in the 27th and 28th minutes had the margin down to five but thereafter Meath could only manage an exchange of points between Eoin Lennon and Joe Sheridan to leave five points between the sides at the finish.
MONAGHAN: P McBennett; D Mone, JP Mone, D Morgan; D Freeman, D Hughes, P McGuigan 0-1; D Clerkin, E Lennon 0-2; C McManus, R Woods 0-1, P Finlay 1-1 (1f); S Gollogly 0-1, V Corey 0-2, T Freeman 0-4 (2f).
Subs: N McAdam for JP Mone, C Hanratty for C McManus, O Duffy for S Gollogly.
MEATH: B Murphy; E Harrington, D Fay, S Kenny; N McKeague, K Reilly, C King; N Crawford, M Ward; P Byrne, G Geraghty, A Nestor; S Bray 0-1, J Sheridan, C Ward 0-7 (6f, 1’45).
Subs: B Meade, for M Ward, G Reilly 0-1 for K Reilly, S McAnerney for C King, C McGill for N McKeague.
Referee: M Hughes (Tyrone).
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