Armagh teach Monaghan lesson

Full-time: Armagh 2-19 Monaghan 0-10

This game was a miserable mismatch, painfully one-sided, and fell on a dark day for Monaghan football as they crumbled in front of their own supporters at Clones.

Armagh were simply in a different class - incisive, expansive, stylish and superbly efficient as they powered their way through to an Ulster Football Championship meeting with either Down or Cavan.

Last year's shock defeat by Monaghan is now but an irritating memory, but Joe Kernan and his highly motivated players clearly turned it to their advantage on a day when the underdog mustered not so much as a whimper.

Twin strikers Steven McDonnell and Ronan Clarke were simply awesome, terrorising hesitant Monaghan defenders all afternoon, and finishing with a combined total of 2-7, McDonnelly in particular laying on an exhibition of finishing.

An opening 15 minutes which had the sides level offered not the faintest hint of the Orchard dominance which was to follow.

McDonnell and Clarke were on target early on, prompting a like response from Paul Finlay and Dick Clerkin.

But once Oisin McConville eased the 2002 All-Ireland champions back in front from a free, Joe Kernan's men closed rank and punished their opponents without mercy.

Philip Loughran was fetching majestically in midfield and launching the missiles which Clarke plucked out of the air with ease, winning the frees which McConville and Paddy McKeever converted.

Clarke's aerial supremacy produced two goals in the space of four minutes late in the half. On the half-hour he palmed McConville's delivery into the path of McDonnell, who took the ball at pace and sent a rocket past Glenn Murphy.

Then the in-form full forward took clean possession himself from Paul McGrane's dropping ball, turned and blasted past the Monaghan 'keeper.

Armagh could have had three goals by that stage, but Martin O'Rourke, sent clear by McDonnell, saw his scuffed shot come back off the base of a post, and a first half tally of eight wides to two further illustrated Orchard supremacy.

By the halfway stage they led by 2-8 to 0-3, and it didn't get any better for Monaghan, their fans streaming out of the ground with almost half an hour to play.

McDonnell compensated for the dearth of excitement with a lesson in points scoring, hooking them over with both feet to the delight of the Armagh fans in the 25,496-strong crowd.

McKeever and McConville also chipped in with points, and while Finlay, Dick Clerkin and Rory Woods hit token scores at the other end, Monagham misery was compounded by the dismissal of substitute John Paul Mone for a reckless challenge on Clarke 10 minutes from the end.

Armagh coasted, but managed to keep their drooling fans entertained right to the end, with McConville, McKeever and sub Brian Mallon adding to the mounting tally.

Armagh: P Hearty, E McNulty, F Bellew, A Mallon, A O'Rourke, Kieran Hughes, A McCann, P Loughran, P McGrane, P McKeever (0-4, 2f), T McEntee (0-1), O McConville (0-5, 3f), S McDonnell (1-5), R Clarke (1-2), M O'Rourke (0-1). Subs: B Mallon (0-1) for Clarke, K McIlvenna for McCann, P McCormack for McNulty, S Kernan for M O'Rourke

Monaghan: G Murphy, G McQuaid, J Coyle, Edmund Lennon, D Duffy, D Mone, C Corey, J Hughes, Eoin Lennon, P Finlay (0-4, 2f), T Freeman, D Clerkin (0-2), K Tavey, R Ronaghan, D Freeman (0-2). Subs: R Woods (0-2, 2f)for Tavey, JP Mone for Corey, D McDermott for Edmund Lennon, J Conlon for Hughes, N Corrigan for Ronaghan.

Referee: J Bannon (Longford)