‘Split-season is not great for inter-county players’ – Galway manager Pádraic Joyce

By the end nothing was mathematical but the feeling around Clones was that this defeat meant Monaghan wouldn’t see another season in the top-flight.

If they are to extend their stay in Division 1 to an 11th season, it would require their greatest escape act yet. And considering they have survived on the final day for the last three seasons on the spin Monaghan have already set a high bar.

This was a bizarre game, one where Galway scored three first-half goals without ever playing the sort of scintillating football that sort of haul usually requires.

The head-scratcher for Vinny Corey was that all three were preventable. The first came about after Monaghan let a long ball bounce close to their goal. Cathal Sweeney pounced.

The next came in a crucial period of the game. First Andrew Woods picked up a black card for checking Rob Finnerty when Monaghan looked to break. From the resultant free, Finnerty hit the post and once again Galway were quickest to react. This time Rory Cunningham was on hand.

That prompted arguably Monaghan’s best period as, with 14 men, they kicked three on the spin to get back to within a goal. But Monaghan were to concede again. This time a harmless looking sideline ball was batted down to John Maher who found the bottom corner for the last action of the half. Galway led by six points (3-4 to 0-7) without playing particularly well. It also brought to 11 the number of goals Monaghan have conceded in this league.

And Tribe boss Pádraic Joyce agreed that their interval lead flattered them.

“(The first half) was funny, yeah, because we turned ball over there, soloing ball into trouble,” Joyce agreed. “We looked lifeless at times and there was no real urgency in our game, funny turnovers, ya know? And mis-soloing the ball a couple of times, hopping the ball not into our hands.

​“Poor turnovers, not even turnovers as such, individual errors is what I’d call them. You don’t mind fellas giving the ball away once you are doing the right thing.

“Then we just put a long ball into the square got a goal out of it. And then another one, another goal before half-time … it’s disappointing (because) we’d a sideline ball in the corner none of our players showed for it and Johnny (Heaney) had no choice but to kick it across the goal and we got a hand to it and another goal.

“To go in at half-time six points up and not playing well was a huge bonus for us.”

The underlying theme in Clones was the list of absentees on both sides. Corey started with just seven of the side from last year’s All-Ireland semi-final. All Monaghan ears will be waiting for news on Rory Beggan’s NFL adventure with the suggestion that he could know his fate as early as this week.

The introduction of Conors – McCarthy and McManus – helped them in the second half but they never looked like reeling Galway in who had Rory Cunningham and Cillian Ó Curraoin in good form.

Corey is hopeful they’ll have a stronger group going into championship.

“Hopefully the tide has turned now with injuries,” he said. “From the very first McKenna Cup match this year I think we’ve averaged three injuries per match. It’s been hard to sustain, but it has given us the chance to try out other lads, it didn’t go all our way today, but there were a lot of positives in that performance.

“I think we recovered well from the second goal, got it back to three points, but then the one just before half-time, it seemed we had blocked it out, but the Galway player got a toe-poke. So all three goals (could) have been prevented really.

“Division 1 is a tough place when you don’t have a lot of your experienced players, and a lot of other teams do. But again there were a lot of positives, take the three goals out of it, I thought we played well for long periods. I have to look back at them, but three high balls in, we were very slow to react to them.

“We’ve two games left, four points up for grabs. We’ll take the break now, but we’ll try get more game-time into the boys just coming back from injury, we are playing a wee bit of catch-up with a lot of our main players. But the key thing for us now is looking five weeks down the line here for the first round of the championship.”

Galway had injuries too. Joyce reckoned they are without up to 15 of their 42-strong panel including All-Stars Shane Walsh, Damien Comer, Cillian McDaid and Liam Silke while Matthew Tierney was also forced off here. None of the walking wounded are expected back before the championship.

“I’ve been saying this for a while but I don’t think anybody listens, the split-season is great but it’s not great for inter-county players who are coming from inter-county set-up, into the club season and back into inter-county. They’re not getting a break as such.”

Galway breath a little easier now. Coming into this game they occupied the other relegation spot with a difficult run in. They face last year’s All-Ireland finalists – Dublin and Kerry – in their last two rounds.

“If you lost the you’d be facing towards the bottom of it but it’s great for us to be on five points now. I still think though we need another result to cement your place in Division 1,” Joyce said.

SCORERS – Galway: R Cunningham 1-3; C Ó Curraoin 0-5 (4f, 1m); J Maher, C Sweeney 1-0 each; R Finnerty 0-2 (2f); S Kelly, J Daly 0-1 each. Monaghan: J McCarron 0-4 (2f, 1m); D Ward, M Hamill, M Bannigan (1f, 1m), C McCarthy 0-2 each; C McManus (f), J Irwin 0-1 each.

GALWAY: C Gleeson 7; J McGrath 7, S Fitzgerald 7, S Mulkerrin 6; D McHugh 7, J Daly 7, D O’Flaherty 6; S Kelly 7, J Maher 7; J Heaney 7, C Darcy 6, C Sweeney 7; R Finnerty 7, N Daly 6, R Cunningham 8. Subs: J Glynn 6 for Mulkerrin (26), L Ó Conghaile 7 for Finnerty (h-t), C Ó Curraoin 8 for Darcy (45), K Molloy 7 for Heaney (47), P Egan for Sweeney (65).

MONAGHAN: D McDonnell 6; R Wylie 7, K Duffy 7, T McPhilips 6; K O’Connell 6, K Lavelle 6, R O’Toole 6; M McCarville 6, D Hughes 7; D Ward 7, M Bannigan 7, M Hamill 7; A Woods 6, J McCarron 7, C McNulty 6. Subs: C McCarthy 8 for Woods (44), C McManus 7 for McNulty (47), D Garland 6 for O’Connell (53), J Irwin for Bannigan (62), K Loughran for Ward (66).

REF: B Cassidy (Derry).

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