Pragmatic Conor McManus demands Monaghan dust themselves off
Conor McManus had every right to feel shortchanged in Clones on Sunday.
The Clontibret forward contributed 1-9 to Monaghan’s total against Kerry in their Super 8s clash.
His goal in the opening exchanges set the tone for the day and another four points were claimed from play.
McManus terrorised Mark Griffin in the first half and continued to push the agenda when shadowed by Ronan Shanahan after the break. It looked like his would be the defining contribution on the day until David Clifford ghosted in for that equalising goal in injury-time.
A man could drive himself mad thinking about that but then Monaghan have already demonstrated an ability to dust themselves off and drive on regardless after they were pipped at the post by another late goal, from Fermanagh, in the Ulster semi-final.
People talked and talked about the game against Fermanagh earlier in the year, and there was a lot said about that, but you don’t get too down when you lose and you don’t get too high when you win.
“If we had won here we wouldn’t be getting carried away anyway,” said McManus, who has now claimed 2-35 in his seven Championship games this summer.
“Let’s just continue on, we’ll work hard over the next two weeks and we’ll go again.”
Clifford’s late, late intervention couldn’t but dominate the debate and the analysis after Sunday’s draw in St Tiernach’s Park but McManus was the star around which every other body orbited for the 73 minutes of play prior to that wonder strike.
He prospered when left one-on-one, when crowded by a posse of chasing defenders, when sprinting out to claim long balls, and when running from deep whilst in possession himself.
His goal was the perfect snapshot of an assassin at his most lethal.
“I found myself one on one with the goalie,” he explained. “He did well to push me out wide and luckily I got it underneath him. But we probably missed chances there too, a couple towards the end of the half.
“We needed to put those away to put a bit of daylight between us and Kerry.
You need to be having a five or six-point lead against a team like Kerry and we didn’t see that out. But that’s football, you have to play until the very last minute.
And so to Salthill.
It would be a surprise if Kerry don’t do the needy and see off a Kildare side that has nothing to play for but pride when those two meet in Killarney on the August Bank Holiday weekend. That will leave Monaghan needing a win or a draw against Galway to edge the Kingdom in the race for that All-Ireland semi-final place.
Another stalemate is highly unlikely, even with Galway already qualified, in no need to press the issue and with a handful of injury issues to manage before they return to Croke Park for the last four. McManus understands the nature of the task at hand.
It is a difficult one but it was a difficult one (against Kerry). To get into an All-Ireland semi-final we have to go and beat a very good Galway side and that is a big challenge. They’re probably already through so it’s about focusing now on two weeks’ time.
Missing out on a first semi-final in 30 years would be a cruel blow to a Monaghan side that seemed to have done more than enough to secure their passage against Kerry but they have the experience of a recent engagement in Pearse Stadium to give them hope.
Galway had four points to spare when the sides met there in the league last March but the visitors had led at the break and played the entirety of the second period with 14 men after Fintan Kelly saw red late in the first half.
“It’s different now going down there in two weeks’ time, it’s Championship football. It will be tougher but our season is on the line now. There’s an All-Ireland semi-final up for grabs in two weeks’ time and we want to be in it.”
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