ALLIANZ FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION 3 FINAL.
Monaghan 2-16
Meath 3-8

Monaghan and Meath served up a thrilling climax to the Allianz football league division 3 when the sides met in Croke Park on Saturday evening last in a game that was in the balance right to the very finish before Monaghan clinched it with a late goal and a point to take their first league silverware since 2005. It was a deserved victory for Monaghan as they had dominated the game for lengthy periods but Meath pushed the issue to the very limit and there was only one point between the sides with four minutes of normal time remaining after Stephen Bray had plundered a goal that threw Meath a lifeline and reduced the deficit to the minimum just seconds before he was substituted. In the end though Meath were unable to capitalise any further as Monaghan regrouped and struck with deadly effect for a goal by Kieran Hughes when he collected the rebound after his initial shot was blocked and crashed to the net with Darren Hughes then registering an insurance point a minute into stoppage time. This was a game though that asked a number of questions off both sides and there will be aspects of Monaghan's play that will give plenty of room for work and improvement as they now prepare for the Ulster championship, but winning the division 3 trophy, having already secured promotion prior to the final, will give Monaghan added confidence as they now step up their preparations for their meeting with Antrim in the Ulster championship on June 9th. There was also a degree of wastefulness on the part of both sides with Monaghan hitting 10 wides in all, six in the first-half, and Meath registering 14 in total, seven in each half and some of those missed chances on both sides were from very scoreable opportunities, another area where both will seek to improve. The Monaghan defence too was caught napping on a couple of occasions as Meath registered goals but overall they restricted the Meath attack reasonably well and forced Meath manager Mick O'Dowd to substitute his entire half forward line, although Paddy Gilsenan had to be replaced due to an ankle injury. That said though this was a morale booster for Monaghan and a victory in Croke Park at any level has to be seen as a very positive sign of the progress that Monaghan are making. Owen Lennon put in a fine performance in midfield where his high fielding was a feature of Monaghan's play and Monaghan again showed that they have quality players in attack with five of their six starting forwards all getting on the score sheet, Paul Finlay, Owen Duffy and Conor McManus registering 2-12 of Monaghan's talk between them, Duffy finishing top scorer with 1-3. .
Teams and Scorers: Monaghan: Rory Beggan, Colin Walshe, Fintan Kelly, Drew Wylie, Kieran Duffy, Neil McAdam, Darren Hughes 0-1, Owen Lennon 0-2, Dick Clerkin, Paul Finlay 0-3 (2f), Kieran Hughes 1-1, Owen Duffy 1-3, Christopher McGuinness 0-1, Conor McManus 0-5 (1f), Dermot Malone. Subs: Stephen Gollogly for D Malone, Dessie Mone for D Clerkin, Padraig Donaghy for C McGuinness, Vincent Corey for D Wylie.
Meath: Paddy O'Rourke, Eoghan Harrington, Kevin Reilly, Caolan Young, Ciaran Lenehan 0-2, Bryan Menton 0-1, Davy Dalton 1-0, Brian Meade, Conor Gillespie, Paddy Gilsenan 0-1, Graham Reilly, Peadar Byrne, Eamonn Wallace 0-1, Stephen Bray 1-1, Michael Newman 1-2 (0-1f). Subs: David Larkin for P Gilsenan, Andrew Tormey for G Reilly, Seamus Kenny for P Byrne, Brian Dillon for D Dalton, Brian Farrell for S Bray. Referee: Padraig O'Sullivan (Kerry).

REACTION from Malachy O'Rourke.
"It is great to come here and win and any day there is a cup on offer you go out to try and win it. Our main aim was to get promotion out of divisions three and we achieved that and the next stage then was that we wanted to test ourselves and see could we come down here to Croke Park and win the final. That was what we set out for ourselves to do and I am glad that we have done that. I suppose we had a few setbacks along the way but we responded well and I'm just delighted with the victory today. I would also have to say that I would be happy with our performance today but sometimes when you are involved and stuck in the middle of a game the way we are on the sideline you maybe don't appreciate the quality of some of the scores and that but it was good and we would be happy with a lot of our attacking play. It would be fair to say as well though that there were quite a number of wides by both sides and I suppose we allowed Meath to get in the ascendancy at the start of the second-half but to be fair to the lads they grabbed it back and we finished the game strongly and as I said we are just delighted with the outcome.
I was happy too with the substitutions we made and they definitely worked because at a certain stage it looked as if it was slipping away from us a little and a few fresh legs coming in helped to turn that around and it worked out well". Tweet

Most Read Stories