THE NINE MINUTES of injury-time played at the end of the second-half that allowed Davy Byrne send over Dublin’s equalising score was a major bone of contention with Monaghan supporters after the game.
Six minutes of stoppage-time were announced by the fourth official’s board, shortly before Kevin McManamon’s 70th minute goal brought Dublin to within three points.
“Listen, there was six minutes on the clock,” said Monaghan boss Seamus McEneaney when he was pressed on the added time at the end of the game.
“There was nine minutes played. I’ve enough problems of my own to sort out without worrying about the problems that Ciaran Branagan had tonight.”
But there were a number of stoppages in the injury-time which accounted for the extra three minutes that were played.
71:04 minutes - Sean Bugler’s well-taken point reduces the gap to two. Before Rory Beggan takes the restart, there’s 60 second stoppage as Branagan books Eoin Murchan and Shane Carey for an off-the-ball clash. He then shows Conor McManus a yellow for a separate incident, which wastes a further 30 seconds.
72:40 - Monaghan make two substitutions, introducing Paraic Keenan and Kieran Hughes into the fray.
73:04 - The game finally restarts, over two minutes after Bugler’s score went over. Beggan’s kick-out goes long and Ryan McAnespie is fouled by Niall Scully as he challenges for the breaking ball. Monaghan are furious that Branagan doesn’t play advantage, as Dermot Malone kicks it into the unmarked McManus on the edge of the ‘D’ but it’s called back.
74:46 – McAnespie receives treatment. Beggan jogs up and takes his time over the free-kick, eventually sending it wide.
76:26 – Ciaran Kilkenny has a shot at the posts which drops well short. Beggan punches as far as Bugler, who turns onto his left and reduces the gap to one.
77:28 - Hughes heads for the corner with the ball and wins a 45 off Murchan’s block. Beggan walks up to take the 45. Branagan gestures at him to speed up the kick. He takes his kick almost 60 seconds after it went out of play. It trails off wide.
78:36 – Dublin work a short kick-out and Scully glides past Aaron Mulligan. The Farney sub doesn’t let him get far, pulling Scully back by his shorts. A free is awarded and they move the ball over to the right flank. Colm Basquel cuts inside, feeding Mick Fitzsimons who finds the run of Davy Byrne. The full-back sends a booming score over the bar at 79:09 to complete a stunning comeback.
79:25 - Beggan sends out his kick-out and Branagan blows for full-time.
Asked about the length of injury-time after the game, Farrell said he wasn’t surprised to see almost ten minutes added on.
“I wasn’t, because I thought there was a lot of time wasting for various different reasons, between injuries and subs and all sorts of stuff.
“From our perspective, we were hoping to see as much time added on as possible, which is understandable.
“I can see how the Monaghan side’s view of that might be slightly different. You know, ultimately the referee makes the call on that. He saw what he saw and added the time that he did and it ended up as it did.”
Rather than the complaints over the injury-time, the real story here was Monaghan’s failure to hold onto a six-point lead on 69 minutes. Much of the damage was done in a wind-assisted first-half which they won by nine points but should have been out of sight.
They scored 10 of their 20 scoring chances in the opening period with the swirling breeze behind them for the majority of the half. They had just 11 shots in the second period, registering six points. Conor McManus finished with 1-4 yet wasn’t as accurate as usual, missing four strikes at the posts.
“If someone asked me the most disappointng thing about it was the first-half,” said McEneaney. “We only had a 53% shot ratio to scores and that was the most disappointing thing.
“There was swirling wind there and sometimes you were playing with it and someytimes you were playing against it. It was very swirling. But the reality was that if you were kicking from the Cusack Stand side into the Hill, that was the best place to be playing tonight.”
The former Meath and Wexford boss has shown good tactical flexibility so far in his three league games of his second stint over his native county.
Against Galway in round 1, they matched up man-on-man against Padraic Joyce’s side and didn’t filter extra bodies into defence. Last weekend at home against Tyrone, Banty’s side dropped 15 men behind the ball, almost mirroring Mickey Harte’s gameplan.
Last night, Monaghan went with a mix of their previous two systems. They played Dermot Malone as a sweeper and midfielder Darren Hughes also looked to drop back and protect his full-back line. Ryan McAnespie was tasked with picking up Brian Fenton whenever Hughes journeyed back and he did so to good effect, greatly restricting the Raheny star’s influence on the game.
Both Malone and Hughes both pressed right up on the Dublin kick-outs at every opportunity.
Monaghan crowded the scoring zone that Dublin love to shoot from, forcing the All-Ireland champions into uncomfortable shooting positions. Dublin dropped five attempts short in the first-half and another four wide, highlighting their struggles at breaking down the Farney defensive system.
“You try and play Dublin, if you keep goals out you’re there with a decent chance of winning the game,” the Monaghan manager explained.
“We felt coming up here tonight that it would take 17, 18 points, and maybe 2-15 to win the game against Dublin. You have to be at that scoring level to compete with Dublin and to beat them. 1-15 unfortunately wasn’t enough tonight.
“On the run of the mill, you’ll have to score 20 to win the game. It’s proven that way.”
McEneaney’s side counter-attacked at pace and put together some intricate passing moves outfield that led to advanced marks being gathered by McAnespie and McManus.
After their 23% scoring efficiency in the opening half for a paltry haul of 0-3, Dublin were far more clinical after the break. They scored 1-12 from 15 shots with their only misses arriving from Brian Howard and Kevin McManamon, whose shots dropped short.
And even then McManamon’s shot wasn’t dealt with by the Farney defence, leading to Bugler palming into his team-mates path for the game-changing goal in the 70th minute.
A key moment in the tie was Darren Hughes’ black card in the 29th minute, which Dublin punished ruthlessly. Driven by James McCarthy at half-back, they outscored Monaghan by 0-4 to 0-1 in the period he spent in the sin-bin.
“Our lads worked extremely hard to get into that position, and when you’re down to 14 men in Croke Park, you’re punished for it,” said McEneaney.
“We worked extremely hard to stay in the game. We were still nine points up with 60 minutes on the clock and I would feel it’s there that cost us rather than the black card.”
What was most pleasing for Farrell was the resilience Dublin showed in the closing stages. The Dublin forwards were relentless in their tackling as Monaghan attempted to work the ball out of defence, which led to Bugler’s two stoppage-time scores.
“It’s a baptism of fire for some of those lads tonight in terms of those conditions, coming up against a very physical, well-drilled and well-organised Monaghan team,” stated the Na Fianna clubman.
“So that was tough for some of those lads tonight, but they’re getting the opportunity, they’re stepping up, they’re giving it their best shot and that’s all you can ask for.
Farrell continued: “I’m proud of the lads in the way they showed that character and heart to get back into it and make the second half much more competitive, and to ultimately get a point out of it at the end was great for us.
“I think that (getting the draw) was important to us in terms of where we’re at, on our particular journey. It says a lot about the players, obviously of course. How they responded was really important and it was great to see that drive and determination wasn’t found wanting at the end there.”
The Farney didn’t get the required impact off the bench and were forced to reintroduce Kieran Hughes in the 73rd minute, following his withdrawal 13 minutes earlier. None of their subs scored, while Dublin’s replacements contributed 1-4.
Monaghan have a lot more physical work done than their opponents, who were missing roughly have of their starters, but that shouldn’t take away from a spirited effort from McEneaney’s men.
“I thought it was a very good performance from Monaghan,” he continued. “It’s a big performance to come here and play the five-time All-Ireland champions. They got a bit of a run on us in the second half, the goal was a crucial score.
“We’d be disappointed with that goal and listen, we’re disappointed we didn’t get the two points. But we’d be absolutely delighted with how Monaghan performed. Out application of our system of play that we wanted to play when we came here was great.
“Listen, we made mistakes towards the end there but that’s Gaelic football. In relation to the National Football League, we’ve three games played in it and we’ve three points and it’s not a bad place for us.”
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