Monaghan v Down: Clones: Saturday April 20th @ 6.00pm

Monaghan have little time to recover either from their physical exertions or from their disappointment at losing the Jim McGuigan Cup final to Tyrone last Saturday after extra time in Glen, Maghera, County Derry, when they face Down in the preliminary round of this year's Electric Ireland Ulster minor football championship in Clones this Saturday at 6.00 PM. It will be Down's second visit to the premier Ulster venue in a week as they were in Clones last Saturday for the Ulster minor league shield final against Sligo, a game they lost deep into stoppage time when Sligo rifled in an opportunist goal to snatch victory by the narrowest of margins. From that point of view Monaghan and Down could well be seen to be approaching Saturday's game from a similar standpoint in that they both have to recover from disappointing defeats, but Monaghan had to put in an extra twenty minutes of effort in Maghera as their game against Tyrone went to extra time and that could take a toll on these young players.

The Ulster minor football championship was officially launched on Monday evening last at the Tyrone GAA Centre of Excellence in Garvaghey, where Monaghan manager Mark Counihan didn't think that losing the Jim McGuigan Cup final and playing two big games inside a week was a major problem. "You don't like to lose but it's not a major setback because we used the league to test out our players, to see how good the panel was and look at various options. We are delighted with how the league campaign went overall, yes disappointed that we lost the final after extra time but the bigger picture for us was always about the Ulster championship and getting ready for this game against Down. Some people would say that going out in another big game inside a week is going to be very testing for these lads, but look, these lads are all sixteen, seventeen years of age and they are just mad to play football. They would play morning, noon and night if they could and they wouldn't use this thing of just a week as an excuse because we came through the league final injury free, so we are happy enough that. The fact that we had Down in the league and the winners of us and Down on Saturday play Antrim in the quarter-final and Antrim were in our section of the league, so there was a lot of shadowboxing I suppose and you couldn't read too much into results or that. Look, as far as the league was concerned, what we got out of it was we had a look at every player on the panel, we are a new management team, we have a new set up this year and we needed to find those things out and we are delighted with how it has gone."

FIXTURES

It's a very limited programme of activity on the club scene this Easter weekend with the only action being on Saturday, and all games in the reserve football Championships, four in the O'Duffy Cup, four in the Crawley Cup, and one game in the McKeown Cup. Saturday also sees the Monaghan minor team in action in the preliminary round of the Ulster minor football championship when the take on Down in Clones at 6 PM.

O'DUFFY CUP

In the O'Duffy Cup, Clontibret are at home against Scotstown, that game at 4 PM, Monaghan Harps are at home against Aughnamullen, Latton are away at Donaghmoyne and Emyvale play hosts to Killanny, those three games timed for 5:30 PM on Saturday evening.

CRAWLEY CUP

In the Crawley Cup, all games also at 5:30 PM on Saturday, Blackhill are at home against Corduff, Clones travel to Doohamlet, Cremartin have home advantage against Eire Og and it's a very local affair in Aghabog between Aghabog and Sean McDermotts.

MCKEOWN CUP

The one game in the McKeown cup on Saturday sees Killeevan taking on Truagh, that game in Smithboro at 5:30 PM.

HURLING

There was a full round of matches in the Silver Hill Foods senior hurling league last Thursday evening that saw victories for Carrickmacross HC away against Castleblayney HC, Castleblayney HC's first defeat in league and championship for some considerable time, Clontibret had two points to spare away at Mattock Rangers in a high-scoring affair and Truagh defeated Inniskeen in St Mellons Park. There is another round of matches tomorrow evening, Thursday, April 18th, all at 7:15 PM, Clontibret at home against Carrickmacross HC, Inniskeen away at Mattock Rangers and Truagh playing hosts to Castleblayney H C

SCOR NEWS

Monaghan had no luck in last weekend's All Ireland Scor Sinsir final in Castlebar where they were represented by Amelia Murphy, Emyvale, in the Solo Singing and by Monaghan Harps in the final of the Trathna gCesit (Quiz), both losing out despite excellent performances. The All Ireland final, though did see Scotstown's Monaghan's Pauline Rooney being presented with a special Recognition Award for her work in Scor over so many years and Pauline is to be congratulated on being recognised at this level.

MONAGHAN GAA SUPPORTERS CLUB NEW YORK GOLF CLASSIC

Preparations have now almost been finalised for the fourth annual Monaghan GAA Supporters Club,  New York, Golf Classic, which again takes place in the Pelham Bay and Split Rock Golf Club in the Bronx, on Friday, May 3rd, with registration at 11:30 AM and a Shotgun start at 1.00 PM. The chief organisers Tony McKenna, Conor McKenna and Gareth Treanor have been working tirelessly in securing sponsorship for what is now one of the major sources of income for Monaghan County Board with last years classic being described by Monaghan County board chairman as a huge success. County chairman Michael McMahon will be a special guest again this year, as will former County players, Gerry McCarville, Brendan Brady, Kevin (Paddy) Treanor, Paddy Kerr and Damien Freeman. A major part of the fundraising, of course, is the auction which raised a considerable amount of money last year and the guest auctioneer this year is former county team manager, Seamus McEnaney.

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