Punters still get with the programme

At some point this week, in domiciles all around Monaghan, people will remember the glossy publication they clenched tightly in Clones yesterday and rescue it from whatever car, dustbin or pocket they last left it after a day of unfettered celebration.

The match day programme has been a staple of our diet for time immemorial and evidence of the importance which we continue attach to them is to be found in drawers, bedrooms, attics and shed all over the country.

Not all are worth the status of keepsake. Trot along to a January fixture and you may just get handed a four-page printout with little more than two team sheets on them, but yesterday’s offering at the Ulster final was an example of just how an old idea has been modernised.