McManus: We came to perform

The sight of Darren Hughes bucking and howling around the St Tiernach’s Park pitch at the end of yesterday’s Ulster championship fixture said everything about what this meant to Monaghan.

Reigning champions though they are, this was an itch they badly needed to scratch given they had failed to better Tyrone in the provincial surrounds since 1988, four losses spanning the years between 2007 and 2013.

The last of those came at HQ last August when Sean Cavanagh’s notorious tackle on Conor McManus played a key role in allowing Mickey Harte’s side to post a narrow two-point win in an All-Ireland quarter-final.