Monaghan’s interest in the 2024 All-Ireland Football series ended as they went down 0-14 to 0-11 in their preliminary quarter-final against Galway at Salthill on Saturday.
The Farney county dragged the huge favourites into a dogfight for 50 minutes on a wet and windy day, but came up short by three points after the hosts dominated the last quarter of the game.
A 10-minute second half spell proved decisive. During that time, Galway outscored their opponents 0-5 to 0-0, whilst Monaghan’s Barry McBennett crashed a shot off the underside of the crossbar when just two points separated the sides.
It’s safe to say that it wasn’t a classic at Pearse Stadium, but that suited Vinny Corey’s men right down to the ground and the first half hour of the game went exactly to plan, as they led 0-5 to 0-3.
Michael Bannigan caught the eye for the Farney men, whilst Galway looked to be suffering a hangover from their disappointing result against Armagh last week.
Matters weren’t helped by their marquee forward Shane Walsh having to be substituted with a hamstring injury 25 minutes into the game. With a quarter-final game upcoming next weekend, they will be sweating over his status.
In the final moments of the first half, Galway showed signs of life, hitting three scores on the bounce via Matthew Tierney (two) and Rob Finnerty to take a 0-6 to 0-5 lead in at the break.
The tit-for-tat scrappy nature of the game continued in the early exchanges of the second half and a Jack McCarron score levelled the game at 0-8 apiece.
It was in the next phase of the game that Galway began to take over.
They hit five on the bounce via Rob Finnerty (three frees), John Maher and substitute Damien Comer to pull clear, whilst Monaghan were left to rue McBennett’s miss.
Two late points from Conor McManus put some gloss on the score-line. The question now is whether or not today was the last time we will ever see arguably Monaghan’s greatest player don the Farney jersey.
