Line-up completed for SFL knock-out stages
Last Saturday’s final round of the Loughman Sportswear Monaghan Senior Football League saw Carrickmacross complete the line-up for the knock-out stages.
Carrickmacross claimed the last place in the quarter-finals via a convincing win over Clontibret. Stephen O’Hanlon returned to the Carrick attack to kick 0-6 and lead their 12 scorers in an important and impressive result for the 2025 IFC winners. Dualta Honney and Niall Meehan got the goals for Carrick as they moved onto nine points to clinch sixth place, pipping Truagh on the head-to-head rule.
Truagh just missed out, despite their win over Castleblayney. Luke H McKenna’s goal helped Truagh spring into a 1-6 to 0-2 advantage, although a run of two-pointers before half-time brought Blayney right back into contention. Max McGinnity and Brendan McElroy were on target to keep Blayney’s hopes of extending their five-match winning run, but Oran McElligott and Ronan Boyle responded to make it five without defeat for Truagh.
Inniskeen joined Castleblayney on ten points after they were given a walkover by Corduff.
Latton will host Carrickmacross this weekend after their one-point win against Cremartin. Stephen Mooney scored 1-5 on his return to action for Cremartin, but the Duffys and the Slevins were central in keeping Latton in touch and the O’Rahillys pounced late on to secure a 2-13 to 1-15 victory. It wasn’t enough for Latton to jump into the top two as Scotstown saw off Magheracloone. Scotstown raced into a 0-5 to 0-1 lead and they remained four clear at the interval, before eventually stretching the gap into double digits. Two-pointers by Alan McCahey, Allan Kieran and Paudie McMahon gave Magheracloone a glimmer of hope, but Scotstown closed it out to move into another semi-final.
Scotstown will face either Castleblayney or Inniskeen on the last weekend of this month, while the other semi will be between Magheracloone and the winners of Latton v Carrickmacross.
INTERMEDIATE FOOTBALL LEAGUE
The battle for places in the knock-out stages of the Monaghan Electrical Intermediate Football League went down to the wire.
Ballybay and Donaghmoyne are the first two teams through to the semi-finals.
Ballybay topped the table on the head-to-head rule after a comeback win away to Éire Óg. Two-point scores by Michael Tierney and Noah McGinty helped Éire Óg build up a 0-12 to 0-5 cushion by the end of the first half with the breeze at their backs, but they added just a point to their tally from then on. Ballybay had Ryan Wylie back from county duty and he joined the likes of Colm Lennon and the McGuinness brothers in kick-starting a dominant second-half display by the visitors, who remain unbeaten since April.
Donaghmoyne also needed a second-half surge to get the better of Clones. Oisín Kierans landed two orange-flag efforts as Clones controlled a low-scoring opening half (0-7 to 0-2), but Conor Burns, Stephen Finnegan and Aaron Courtney spurred Donaghmoyne on to win by 1-14 to 0-11 in the end.
Aughnamullen sealed their place in the quarter-finals with a hard-earned win over Doohamlet. Goals by Mícheál Bannigan and Joel Wilson had Aughnamullen up by 2-8 to 0-10 at the break, despite Barry McGinn and Oisín O’Neill’s two-pointers for Doohamlet. With Bannigan racking up 1-5 and Tiernan Duffy firing over twice from distance, Aughnamullen moved eight clear at one stage, meaning Jamie Walshe’s major couldn’t rescue what would have been a game-changing result for Doohamlet.
Emyvale finished third after they emerged from a tight finish at home to Monaghan Harps. A Michael Galligan penalty sent the Harps on their way to a 1-5 to 0-3 interval advantage, but Matthew Finn tapped to the net for Emyvale, who added two-pointers from Stephen Askin, Harvey Colleran and keeper Eoghan Treanor.
A Lochlainn Power goal and a long-range score by Seán Callan kept the Harps in contention, but Emyvale held on by 1-15 to 2-10.
The most eye-catching result of the final round saw Tyholland rip up the form book to win in Killanny. Conor Vernon’s second goal in two games and scores by Killian Collins and Kian Duffy helped Killanny lead by the minimum at half-time, but Dara McKenna (1-5) and Diarmuid Hughes (2-3) led the scoring as Tyholland finished strongly to claim their first win of the season. With Killanny joining Doohamlet and Clones on nine points each, sixth place boiled down to a mini-league between those three teams. Killanny’s nine-point win over Clones last month proved decisive in inching the 2025 IFC finalists into the knock-out stages and a meeting with Emyvale. The winners of that one will face Donaghmoyne in the last four, while Ballybay await either Monaghan Harps or Aughnamullen.
JUNIOR FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Meanwhile, the Eurotech Monaghan Junior Football League quarter-finals are down for decision this weekend. Drumhowan and Toome both won last Saturday, despite having secured semi-final places with a round to spare. Drumhowan remain the only unbeaten team in any of the three divisions after they beat Killeevan by 0-15 to 0-11. The front-runners made light of the absence of star forward Tom Doherty to keep their momentum going, with Daragh McAdam and Aodhán Brennan leading their scoring. Lorcán Kilpatrick and keeper Adam Langan responded for Killeevan, but Drumhowan did enough to make it eight wins and one draw this year.
Toome’s seventh win came by a narrow margin against Oram, with James Wilson producing a match-winning display. Wilson (0-14) and Callum O’Reilly (0-5) accounted for all but a point of Toome’s total between them as they held off a late charge by Oram. Ryan Lynch led eight Oram scorers with 0-7, while Jason Irwin and keeper Beraat Turker also chipped in, but their bid for a quarter-final berth fell just short at 0-20 to 0-18.
Aghabog and Blackhill will meet again at the weekend after they shared the spoils last time out. Cormac O’Hanlon (0-9) and Mícheál Smyth were prominent among Aghabog’s scorers as they led for most of the game, but Darren McElroy helped keep Blackhill in touch and the hosts finished strongly to secure a draw at 1-14 to 0-17. Oram’s narrow loss meant Blackhill qualified in sixth place, setting up a rematch with the Emmets, this time in Aghabog.
Currin earned home advantage for their quarter-final against Killeevan via a prolific win over Rockcorry. Tiarnán and Killian Kierans and Ciarán McCaffrey guided Currin to a commanding lead during the first half and although Rock managed to hit the net four times, Currin’s tally of 3-22 left them seven points clear in the end.
Scotstown signed off on their JFL campaign with a 3-13 to 0-15 defeat of Seán McDermotts. Rattling the net twice in the first half and again soon after the restart, Scotstown ended up as the highest goal-scoring team in any of the three divisions with 20, but they remained two points short of the top six.