Ulster U20 Football Championship
Section A, Round Two
Monaghan 2-8 Antrim 1-6
Antrim U20 footballers showed a remarkable improvement from their performance against Tyrone a fortnight ago but came up just short against Monaghan in Castleblayney on Wednesday night.
Niall Jackman’s side had suffered a heavy loss to Tyrone in their opening game at Dunsilly but the Antrim manager had nothing but praise for the commitment of his panel in an interview during the week.
The manager’s confidence in his panel was vindicated by this performance and while the young Saffrons lost in the end they were competitive throughout this time around, a testament to their resolve.
They were never able to get their noses in front however despite reducing the arrears to one on a couple of occasions and then two late on, but a late Monaghan goal proved decisive in the end.
Monaghan were first to score when Bobby McCaul found the mark after four minutes and a further seven had passed when Packie Coogan-Burke doubled their advantage.
Tom Shivers finally got Antrim on their way, but they were rattled when McCaul fired to the net after 17 minutes to leave Jackman’s side chasing the game for the remainder.
It was a setback for the Saffrons who had been right in it but they responded well with the next three points from Shivers and team captain Tiernan McCormick to close the gap to one and at this stage the visitors were giving as good as they got.
Monaghan had the final say of the half, however, as Fionán Carolan split the uprights to move the Farney into a 1-3 to 0-4 lead.
Tom Shivers was proving a handful for the Farney defence throughout and he got them back to within a point early in the second half.
At this stage an upset looked on the cards but the young Saffrons just couldn’t find an equaliser as a Stephen Mooney free stretched it back to two and then three in identical fashion.
Connlaodh McCann kept the Saffrons in touch but it was as close as they got with a Mooney free putting that goal between the sides and he would add another from play late on after substitute Darragh Mee got his name on the Farney score sheet.
With five between them, it looked like that was it but Antrim grabbed a late lifeline when Johnny Hannon found the net, but Kian Duffy replied for the hosts to stretch the gap to five and that was how it finished.
A second defeat for Antrim in what has rightly been called the group of death but Antrim can take a lot of encouragement from this performance and they certainly restored some pride in the jersey while vindicating Niall Jackman’s praise of his panel earlier in the week.
Monaghan: J Mooney; G Devlin, J McConnon, F Carlolan (0-1); P Doogan-Burke (0-1), T Hughes, S Callan; A Carey, C McQuillan; C Foy, O McGorman, D McKenna; C Conlon, B McCaul (1-1), S Mooney (0-4, 3f).
Subs: K Duffy (1-0) for C Conlon, J McMahon for C McQuillan, D Mee (0-1) for D McKenna, N Sherlock for G Devlin
Antrim: S Laverty; E O’Hare, C Mac Adhaim, C Maginnis; C McCann (0-1), P Duffin, R Quinn; M McCrossan, T Shivers (0-4); C Walsh, E McCartan, N Duffy; T McCormick (0-1), J Hannon (1-0), N Fallon.
Referee: James Lewis