Ulster U20 Football Tier 2 semi-final
Antrim 0-12 Monaghan 3-15
An inexperienced Antrim, missing a number of regulars fell to a more mature Monaghan in this Tier 2 Ulster U20 semi-final at Dunsilly on Monday night.
Most of the Antrim side are under age again next year and if they can be kept together then things will get better but there will be much that manger Colin Toal can take from Monday night’s performance.
Indeed it was Antrim who made the better start and a good move opened up the Monaghan defence with Lorcan Phillips firing over and the St. Paul’s youngster might well have had a goal.
It continued to look promising for the home side and a strong run from Paul Duffin set up Sean Boyd who pointed to put the Saffrons 0-2 to 0-0 ahead after five minutes
Monaghan opened their account through the accurate free taking of Matthew Finn, one of several soft awards the corner forward greatly accepted over the hour, before Killian Kearns brought the sides level with 8 minutes gone.
The visitors were beginning to get on top and Kearns was afforded acres of space as he soloed through for the game’s opening goal with the Antrim defence nowhere to be seen.
Matthew Finn added a point from play before converting his second free of the evening before Lorcan Phillips replied at the other end and then a strong run from Niall Hynds looked like producing a goal but Martin Quinn averted the danger.
The visitors replied again with Matthew Finn converting his third free of the evening and Killian Kearns hitting a fine 2 pointer and when Finn converted a ‘45’ it was starting to slip away from the young Saffrons.
Another Finn converted free moved Monaghan 8 ahead but a great long range 2 points free from Donnacha McGurk gave Antrim a glimmer of hope as the whistle sounded for half time.
HT Antrim 0-6 Monaghan1-9
The visitors extended their lead through another Finn free at the start of the second half but Antrim were still putting some promising moves together but unable to turn them into scores with Corey Walsh and Sean Boyd both off target.
They were made to pay the price as the excellent Sean O’Connell got through for Monaghan’s second goal in the 9th minute and when the same player followed up for a third after a good initial save from Jamie McLaughlin, it was over.
To their credit Antrim kept plugging away with Paul Duffin, Ronan Quinn and Niall Hynds to the fore and replied with points from Segdae MacAdhaim, Paul Duffin, Michael McKenna and Duffin again.
Sean O’Connell and Darragh McMahon replied for the Farney County but two more from Ronan Quinn and Eamon Ward put a better reflection on the final score line as Kearns concluded the scoring with a great 2 pointer for the visitors.
A disappointing campaign for Antrim with just one point to their credit from a draw with Fermanagh. It doesn’t tell the whole story however as Colin Toal and his management team have been without key players throughout their campaign.
They have shown in spells that they are capable of much better and some of their play tonight was good but bad choices or poor finishing let them down on several occasions.
They came up against a bigger and more physically imposing Monaghan on this occasion for whom Niall Mehan Matthew Carolan, Sean O’Connell and free taker, Matthew Finn were excellent.
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