 Martin O'Rourke wins possession ahead of Monaghan's Damien Freeman |
Monaghan deservedly edged out Armagh after extra-time in a dour struggle in Saturday's All-Ireland qualifier. The Farney men went 0-4 to 0-1 ahead but Armagh led 0-6 to 0-4 at the break only for Monaghan to fight back and waste chances to win in normal time. Stefan Forker's point ensured extra-time but Armagh were down to 14 men after Steven McDonnell had been sent off after a clash with Dessie Mone. Conor McManus' two points gave Monaghan an advantage which proved enough. Both teams made late changes to their line-ups with Charlie Vernon replacing Kevin O'Rourke for Armagh and Eoin Lennon and Mark Downey in for JP Mone and Ciaran Hanratty. With Rory Woods dominating Aidan O'Rourke early on, Monaghan took a 0-2 to 0-0 lead and while Aaron Kernan opened Armagh's account, Raymond Ronaghan and Damien Freeman replied with further Farney scores. However, Armagh took complete control in the second quarter and Thomas Freeman's absence from the Farney forward line started to look terminal. Armagh did hit five unanswered points with Brian Mallon, Ronan Clarke, Kernan (two) and McDonnell on target but several other Orchard chances were squandered. The Armagh misses proved crucial as Monaghan came out fired out after the break and two Finlay frees had the home county level by the 39th minute. McDonnell was lucky to stay on the pitch in the 43rd minute as he appeared to be caught on camera punching Mone although, the Armagh veteran had been on the receiving end of some questionable treatment from the Monaghan defence. Kernan's free nudged Armagh 0-7 to 0-6 ahead but sub McManus replied with two frees to put Monaghan ahead again. Armagh led again by the 54th minute after Kernan and McDonnell frees only for McManus and Finlay to point to restore Monaghan's advantage. Finlay missed a glorious chance to close out the match in the 68th minute when he was wide with a 35-metre free. It was obvious that Armagh would get a chance to level and so it came as sub Forker pointed in injury-time after Clarke had been fouled. At that stage, Armagh looked to have the psychological advantage but Monaghan refused to yield and McManus' two scores and Finlay's 84th-minute point proved enough despite Gareth O'Neill's late score.
Armagh: P McEvoy, A Mallon, B Donaghy, B Shannon, A O'Rourke, C McKeever, A. Kernan (0-3, 4f), K Toner, J Lavery, P Duffy, M O'Rourke, B Mallon (0-1), S McDonnell (0-2, 2f), R Clarke (0-1), C Vernon. Substitutes: T Kernan for Lavery (20), P Kernan for A O'Rourke (51), S Forker (0-2, 2f) for Duffy (53), K O'Rourke for T Kernan (62), R Henderson (70), D McKenna for Vernon (79), G O'Neill (0-1) for M O'Rourke (85). Monaghan: P McBennett, D Mone, V Corey, D McArdle, D Freeman (0-1), G McQuaid, D Hughes, O Lennon, D Clerkin, S Collogly, P Finlay (0-5, 3f), C McManus (0-4, 3f), M Downey, R Ronaghan (0-1), R Woods (0-1). Substitutes: B McKenna for Downey (34), P Meegan for Gollogly (48), K Hughes for Clerkin (57), P McGuigan for Ronaghan (57), S Gollogly for Hughes (70), D Morgan for McArdle (80), C Hanratty for Meegan (84). Referee: D Fahy (Longford).
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