Clontibret today ended Scotstownâs dream of winning 5 Monaghan Championships in a row for the second time in their history when they beat their North Monathan rivals by 5 points. Scotstown have reached the last 7 county finals but were never really in the running today. Clontibret led 9 points to 3 (or something crazy like that) at half time. Scotstown got behind the Clontibret defence numerous times in the first half but couldnât capitalise. Clontibret full-back Conor Boyle made a fantastic one-handed save on the line to deny county star Conor McCarthy a certain goal, with the goalkeeper beaten.
In the second half Clontibret changed their game plan to a blanket defence and were tactically very astute. Scotstown had no real further goal chances and Clontibret were able to get a steady stream of scores on the counter-attack, despite committing very few men forward. A goal with ten minutes from time effectively ended any hope of a Scotstown fightback.
Key men for Scotstown didnât perform today and both Conor McCarthy and Shane Carey had bad days. Clontibret had big performances all over the park. Both Clontibret and Scotstown had come through penalty shootouts to reach the final and it was not a high-quality championship in Monaghan this year. I saw Clontibret scrape across the line against the Wylie brothersâ Ballybay side and I thought that physically they just didnât look like county champions at that stage. Manager John McEntee, a former Armagh great, has proven himself a good trainer and today his team were physically very impressive.
It must be said however that Monaghan sides have mostly struggled in the Ulster Club Championship in the past 15 years and Clontibret will still need to improve much more if they are to change that.
Maguire made a bit of a party piece of that type of tackle in the latter part of his career. He did it to Richie power in a league game and also nearly killed Mark Howard from crokes in last yearâs county final. Howard suffered a cruciate and hasnât played since.
I can remember Nolan acting the tramp vs Galway a few years ago in championship. Iâve an idea it was a replay in which Dublin were hammered. I think it was in Tullamore.
