Bannigan’s prayers answered as his side ‘throw everything at it’
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Colm Shalvey
After the rollercoaster that was Monaghan’s extra-time win over Derry in their Ulster SFC semi-final epic, an emotional Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan told reporters that he had said a prayer to his late father, Packie, and his late brother, Owen, as Rory Beggan lined up the decisive free with seven seconds left on the clock.
Trying to make some sense of the drama that had unfolded in the previous two hours or so, Bannigan said: “You're involved in sport for days like this and for moments like this. There’s plenty of days when you're coming on the wrong side of it, but we came out on the right side this time. It was an absolutely incredible game of football.
“It’s fair to say it could have gone either way. Hard luck to Derry but credit to them for their part in it. I don’t think any team deserve to lose that game. They almost won it at the death and then we won it at the death. That’s the Monaghan spirit. Ten points down against a hell of a team. The boys just threw everything at it.
“We spoke about going out and putting bodies on the line and giving it everything, which we just didn’t do in the first half. Second half, we put everything into it. Every single man stood up and was counted. Look at what it means to the people of Monaghan.”
Reflecting on the chaotic finish to the initial 70 minutes, Bannigan noted: “Jack McCarron’s kick was unbelievable. There was a lot of drama and then Jack had to take that kick. What resolve, what liathróidí he showed to kick that and take it to extra-time. I was convinced then that we were going to go on and win it. It could have gone either way. Obviously when Derry got the lead point with 40 seconds left, you fear the worst, but we still had a chance.
“When you have men on the pitch like we have, I knew we could work the ball up the pitch and work a scoring opportunity. At that stage, I was probably hoping we could work a point and bring it to penalties, but we won the free outside the arc.
“I said a wee prayer to a couple of very important men up above and Rory stroked it over. I never doubt Rory. You trust him and leave it in his hands. He’s the best goalkeeper in the game and he proved it again.”
Bannigan admitted that it had been a “risk” to introduce Ryan McAnespie for the second half of extra-time for his first appearance since the Dublin game in mid-February: “It was a big risk to take him on, he hadn’t done one full training session. We had a bit of sickness in the camp, we needed to take Ryan Duffy out. We had Ryan McAnespie on standby.
“When you’re coming into a stage of a game like that, what influenced my decision was not just Ryan McAnespie’s ability, but his experience to bring onto the pitch for that last ten minutes. This sport is a game of inches and I felt that maybe he would find us that inch that make the difference. That ball he turned over in the corner was certainly one of the inches that got us there.
“Another one was the pass from Dylan Byrne that led to the free at the end. The subs that came in: Bobby McCaul, Jack McCarron, Oisín McGorman and David Garland all scored. Robbie Hanratty came in and caught a brilliant ball in the middle of the field. That would have been his championship debut. Shane Hanratty came in near the end for his first championship appearance. Would they have come on and given us an inch if they hadn’t got that experience in the league?
“We got experience into lads for the championship and I’d like to think we now have a stronger squad. We made decisions during that league with boys like Killian Lavelle and Conor McCarthy. We could have patched them up and put them back out to play league football, but we didn’t. We got them ready for the championship; that was always the priority.”
The Aughnamullen man acknowledged that Monaghan had leant into their status as underdogs, saying: “Nobody gave us a prayer of making an Ulster final. We tapped into it from the moment we beat Cavan.
“You heard what Conor Laverty said [after Down shocked Donegal]; in sport, you’ll pull any lever you possibly can to find any wee bit of extra motivation. I’ve no doubt the Derry boys weren’t complacent in any shape or form, but we were written off everywhere else.”
Monaghan trailed by 11 points at one stage, but Bannigan insisted that he never felt the game was gone out of their reach.
“It’s never gone with these new rules. We were playing well below ourselves, so the answer lay in that dressing room. We wanted to get our boys to play like they can play in the second half and they did. Once we got a bit of a momentum, the energy lifted the confidence and we drove on from there.”