Monaghan savour memorable win over Derry in saga
Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan. Pic: INPHO/Tom O’Hanlon
Where do you even start? Saturday’s blockbuster will take the guts of a week to dissect.
Monaghan led just three times after a zillion moments of differing magnitudes.
All three came in extra-time and one of them was the most important instance – right at the end.
Seconds after Derry substitute Sean Kearney looked to have sent Derry to an Ulster final, Rory Beggan had the ball in play.
Dessie Ward worked their last throw of the dice out of the danger zone. By the time Monaghan won a free in the two-point parish, Beggan was back under the spotlight again.
With the last kick, he sent Monaghan into a final berth and a Derry team packing, a team twice led by 10 points after Niall Loughlin’s second goal.
“You’re involved in sport for days like this and moments like this,” said a relieved and overjoyed Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan.
“There are plenty of days where you come out the wrong side of it, but thank God we came out on the right side of it.
“It was an absolutely incredible game of football. I think it’s fair to say that it could have went either way. Hard luck to Derry, credit to them for their part in it. They are a brilliant opponent… I don’t think any team deserved to lose that game.”
Derry had the breeze and led 2-10 to 0-6 at half-time. Had they taken even a quarter of the 0-16 they missed, the script would’ve been so much different.
While Derry missed five two-point chances before half-time, Monaghan nailed eight in all. That’s the first big swing.
The other was the bench. When Sean Kearney came on in the 88th minute, he was just the 19th player used. His second touch was a point.
Monaghan’s impact was so much greater. David Garland kicked a point. Jack McCarron kicked the greatest score of all. Ryan McAnespie came back from injury to make a vital turnover. Bobby McCaul was the target man that pinned Derry back. It game Monaghan length.
Robbie Hanratty made his debut and kick-out he won led to a two-pointer. Oisin McGorman tasted championship for the second time and played a huge part.
“Would they have come on and given us an inch here today if they hadn’t got that experience in the league?” Bannigan questioned of the newcomers.
“We might have lost all those games in the league and we were very disappointed to lose our Division One status, but the championship’s always priority and all those things helped us.”
Collectively Monaghan pulled together but Derry should’ve had them out of sight. Murray, Loughlin and McGuigan kicked a combined 2-14.
When Ryan O’Toole blocked McGuigan, McCarthy kicked a two pointer at the other end. Inches but much more. Monaghan had enough of them at key times. It pulled their fans into the game.
Derry survived the scare when Bannigan pulled a shot wide and when a diagonal ball to Karl Gallagher was too slow and he had to take a point. There was McGuckin’s unbelievable save to flick Bobby McCaul’s shot over the bar.
When Monaghan’s only goal came it was a sledgehammer to Derry’s momentum. A shanked McGuckin kick-out hung on the inside of Paudi McGrogan. The dashboard lights were flashing. Beggan hammered onto it, plucked it and played Bannigan in for goal. Boom. A six-point deficit halved just like that.
The drama was only beginning. When Derry conceded a sideline ball at end of extra-time, the hooter sounded.
Game over? Fans came on the pitch and it looked like it. Referee Mooney restarted the game and McCarron wrapped the outside of his left boot around it. Over the bar. Two points. Level. Extra-time.
Derry will rightly point to McCarron’s standing foot breaking the line. They would’ve also been well within their rights to have headed to the dressing room. The referee’s final whistle is always final.
“I was a wee bit worried, obviously there was a lot of people out on the pitch, a lot of drama,” Bannigan said of the key moment.
“Then, Jack had to take it (the kick) two or three minutes later. What resolve, he kicked that ball to bring it to extra time and I was convinced then that we were going to go on to win it.” While Derry pushed three clear early in the second-half of extra-time, a Dessie Ward two pointer told everyone Monaghan were far from finished.
Kearney’s point should’ve been the Derry winner but, as the saying goes, Monaghan found a way.
Niall Loughlin and Eoin McEvoy’s first half goals and their 10-point leads were now just pieces in a puzzle Beggan laid the last piece into. Is Beggan the best ‘keeper ever?
“I think Stephen Cluxton would have a thing or two to say about that,” came his manager Bannigan’s response.
“Cluxton revolutionised goalkeeping and was an incredible leader and goalkeeper. I think I’d have to be the most biased of Monaghan person to claim that,” he said of Beggan being the best.
“He’s certainly up there as one of the best players ever to play the game, never mind goalkeeper.”
Beggan’s right peg was the final brush stroke on Saturday. A belter of a game in a championship race that just keeps on giving.
: M Bannigan 1-5 (2f), R Beggan 0-6 (3 tpf), J McCarron (1tp sideline, 1f) A Woods, M McCarville, D Ward (1tp) 0-3 each, C McCarthy 0-2tp, K Gallagher, S Mooney, D Garland, O McGorman and B McCaul 0-1 each.
S McGuigan 0-7 (6f), N Loughlin 2-1 (1f), L Murray 0-6 (1tp), E McEvoy 1-2, E Doherty 0-2, P Cassidy, C Doherty, S Kearney, N Toner and C Glass 0-1 each.
: R Beggan; K Lavelle, R O’Toole, D Byrne; C Dowd, D Ward, A Carey; M McCarville; L Kelly; K Gallagher, M Bannigan, S O’Hanlon; C McCarthy, A Woods, S Mooney Subs: B McCaul for Kelly (HT), D Garland for Mooney (45), O McGorman for Carey (51), J McCarron for Woods (55), D McElearney for Lavelle (FT), R Hanratty for Gallagher (75), R McAnespie for O’Hanlon (HT ET), S Hanratty for Dowd (88).
: S McGuckin; D Baker, R Forbes, C McCluskey; C Doherty, G McKinless, P McGrogan; E McEvoy, B Rogers; E Doherty, C Glass, P Cassidy; N Loughlin, S McGuigan, L Murray.
Subs: S Downey for Loughlin (61), N Toner for Cassidy (61), P McGurk for C Doherty (67), N Loughlin for Downey (FT), C Doherty for McGurk (FT), S Kearney for Loughlin (88), P McGurk for C Doherty (88).
: N Mooney (Cavan).
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