Cavan come through tough battle against neighbours
Cavan 1-13
Monaghan 0-13
Paul Fitzpatrick
at Kingspan Breffni Park
Neighbours Cavan and Monaghan have been going at it since before any of us can remember and the pair didn't disappoint here again yesterday, biting on their gumshields again for a pulsating contest which produced three red cards and plenty of fine scores.
Cavan hit the ground running and, powered on by Gearoid McKiernan and Killian Clarke – who ruled the skies – they raced into a 0-9 to 0-2 lead.
The Breffni men kicked some spectacular points. McKiernan was first and long-range points from Dara McVeety and Mark McKeever, a Niall McDermott free and more from McKiernan and Clarke made it 0-6 to 0-0 by the 10th minute.
Stephen Gollogly opened Monaghan's account with a free in the 12th minute and Dick Clerkin quickly added one from play but Cavan got back to work and points from McVeety, Martin Dunne (free) and Jack Brady made it 0-9 to 0-2.
Using Mark McKeever and Ronan Flanagan extra defenders and and Martin Reilly as a sweeper, Cavan looked to counter at pace. From one such move, after Monaghan had spurned their best goal chance, McDermott curled over from the left corner which, along with a massive effort from Chris Conroy, extended Cavan's lead to 0-11 to 0-3.
McKiernan and Gollogly (free) exchanged scores as Terry Hyland's men went in holding a fully-merited seven-point advantage, 0-12 to 0-5.
Two points from Paul Finlay dragged Monaghan closer but the Ballybay man would later get the line after an off the ball incident, the upshot of which was straight red cards for he and McKiernan and a black for full-back Drew Wylie. By that stage Cavan were hanging tough thanks mainly to a sweet lobbed goal from the otherwise-quiet Martin Dunne.
Without their talisman at midfield – and having also lost Niall McDermott to a second yellow and Damien O'Reilly to a black – Cavan faded on the home stretch as nerves set in. Monaghan kicked some good scores through Paul Meegan and Ryan McAnespie but they ran out of time as the hosts held on for a morale-boosting victory.
Cavan: Conor Gilsenan, Josh Hayes, Rory Dunne, Jason McLoughlin, Killian Clarke (0-1), Ronan Flanagan, Martin Reilly, Gearoid McKiernan (0-3), Damien O'Reilly, Dara McVeety (0-2), Chris Conroy (0-1), Mark McKeever (0-1), Niall McDermott (0-2), Martin Dunne (1-1, 1f), Jack Brady (0-2, 1f)
Subs: David Wright for O'Reilly (b/c), Enda Hessin for Conroy, Enda O'Reilly for Martin Dunne, Micheál Lyng for Brady, Niall Murray for McVeety
Monaghan: Enda Duffy, John McCarron, Drew Wylie, Dessie Ward, Dessie Mone, Kieran Duffy, Fintan Kelly, Paul Finlay (0-4, 2f), Neil McAdam, Owen Duffy, Stephen Gollogly (0-4f), Shane Carey (0-1), Chris McKenna, Dick Clerkin (0-1), Dermot Malone
Subs: Paul Meegan (0-2) for McAdam, Thomas Connolly for Chris McKenna, Daniel McKenna for Malone, Ryan McAnespie (0-1) for Ward, Karl O'Connell for Duffy
Ref: Sean Hurson (Tyrone)
SEE THIS WEEK'S ANGLO-CELT FOR FULL REPORT, REACTION AND PREVIEW TO WEDNESDAY'S SEMI-FINAL AGAINST FERMANAGH!