Late monaghan rally breaks cavans hearts

Cavan 0-15
Monaghan 0-16

Paul Fitzpatrick
at Kingpan Breffni Park

There was heartbreak for the Cavan senior team at Breffni Park today as they slipped out of the Ulster race by a single point after a tense tussle against neighbours Monaghan.

Before a bumper crowd of 18,500, Cavan turned in a fine performance and managed to claw their way into a winning position when Michael Argue hooked over a point to make it 0-13 to 0-9 in the 49th minute.

However, Monaghan rallied with a succession of top-class scores from the likes of Dessie Mone, Conor McManus and subs Dick Clerkin and Colin Walshe to edge in front.

Cavan had a couple of late chances but debutante goalkeeper Ray Galligan saw a 45 and a long-range free drift to the right of the posts. Sub Martin Dunne sent over a 40-metre free deep into injury time but, from the resulting kick-out, ref Padraig Hughes sounded the long whistle at 38 minutes and two seconds (three additional minutes had been announced).

Cavan had led by 0-9 to 0-7 at the break, having raced into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead early on.

In the curtain-raiser, the Cavan minors delivered an impressive performance as they blitzed Monaghan by 12 points, with Thomas Edward Donohoe and David Brady netting and Ryan O'Neill kicking three fine points from play.

Cavan: R Galligan (0-01, f), J McLoughlin, R Dunne, D O’Reilly, J McEnroe, F Flanagan (0-01), D McVeety, T Corr, C McKiernan (0-02), R Flanagan, N Murray, M Reilly, C Mackey (0-02, 1f), M Argue (0-02), N McDermott (0-04, 4f).
Subs: C Brady (0-01) for McEnroe, M Dunne (0-02, 1f) for O’Reilly, M Lyng for Reilly (BC), T Hayes for Mackey

Monaghan: R Beggan, D Mone (0-01), D Wylie, R Wylie, F Kelly, V Corey, K O’Connell (0-01), N McAdam, S Carey, R McAnespie, P Finlay (0-3, 3f), D Hughes (0-01), D Malone, K Hughes (0-01, f), C McManus (0-07, 5f).
Subs: S Gollogly for Malone (BC), C Walshe (0-01) for Carey, D Clerkin (0-01) for Finlay, C McGuinness for McAnespie

Referee: P Hughes (Armagh).

 

See Wednesday's paper for full coverage.