‘Banty’ back to business after goalkeeper fiasco

IT WAS a decision that could well have brought the curtain down on his six-year tenure as Monaghan manager so it is hardly surprising Seamus McEnaney still won’t be drawn on it.

Three weeks have passed since word of his sensational decision to play full-back Darren Hughes in goals shot through Casement Park like wildfire in the minutes leading up to the Ulster quarter-final against Armagh.

The results were disastrous early on. Steven McDonnell caused untold damage in Hughes’ absence in the opening quarter before McEnaney rejigged his defence and stemmed the bloodletting.

McEnaney’s demeanour was bullish and unapologetic afterwards and, with regular keeper Shane Duffy back between the posts tomorrow against Fermanagh and Hughes likely to wear the number three shirt, he is eager to draw a line under the episode.

He had no such qualms running the rule over the game itself.

If Hughes’ appearance in the goalkeeper’s short was a surprise, so too was the manner in which Monaghan accounted for Armagh.

Put simply, this Monaghan team has won few friends down the years with their uncompromising and unapologetic physical approach but their dismantling of Paddy O’Rourke’s side owed as much to guile as graft.

Dick Clerkin’s performance summed the day up to a tee. A workhorse who loves nothing more than getting under an opponent’s skin, the midfielder fired over two superb long-distance points near the end.

Monaghan had always possessed fine footballers in the likes of Tommy Freeman and Paul Finlay but this was revelatory stuff and, to be frank, some of the praise bordered on the patronising.

“We wouldn’t be all that caught up in peoples’ opinions of us,” said ‘Banty’. “This next game is a crucial game for everyone involved and I would be more than happy if we got by with a one-point win.”

McEnaney’s wasn’t the only career on the line earlier this month. Though younger men such as Conor McManus, Kieran Hughes and Colin Walshe have been introduced in recent times, this is very much a mature football team.

Eight of the side that started against Armagh made their debuts before McEnaney took over in 2004. Dessie Mone’s inter-county career started the same year and a handful of others have been knocking around for half a decade or so.

The journey has been broken up by the clever additions of men like Martin McElkennon and Paul Grimley to the backroom and it will be some surprise if Monaghan fail to earn another spot at that elusive Ulster title next month.

Just don’t say that to ‘Banty’.

“Fermanagh are the one team to have beaten us comprehensively in Ulster over the last few years. They are very difficult to break down but we won’t fear Fermanagh or anyone else. We are confident in our ability.”