MONAGHAN CAME WITHIN seconds of ending a 30-year wait for an All-Ireland semi-final spot last weekend.
They were on the cusp of a win over Kerry in Clones to seal their place in the last four, but a late goal from David Clifford clinched a draw for the Kingdom and scuppered Monaghan’s semi-final plans.
All is not lost for Malachy O’Rourke’s side but they must now face a crucial trip to Salthill on 4 August where they are in desperate need of a result against Galway.
“The immediate aftermath of the game, there was an awful sense of disappointment,” said Monaghan defender Colin Walshe at the launch of The EirGrid’s Moments in Time competition in Croke Park.
We felt like we let something slip and get away from us.
“I suppose we left ourselves in that position against a Kerry team that was fighting for their lives and threw everything at us and there was only a kick of a ball in it going into the last couple of minutes.
“Them things happen in football, a goal can come out of nothing, but it’s something we’ve kind of drawn a line under. We had training last night and we’re just moving on forward from that.
As much as it was disappointing to lose that goal at the end and get the draw we’re going to have to look back on why if it was such a good performance that there was just a kick of the ball in it going into the last minute.”
Galway are already assured a safe passage out of the Super 8s and into the semi-final stages as they currently lead the Group 1 table.
Despite their safe position, it’s likely that Kevin Walsh’s side will aim for a victory against Monaghan to maintain their winning momentum and ensure they avoid Dublin until the All-Ireland final, provided they both reach that stage.
Irrespective of Galway’s intentions for the game, Monaghan know that Kerry are hot on their heels to snatch that other semi-final place if they slip up in Salthill.
A win would see Monaghan go through as the table-toppers while a draw would also be enough to send them through.
“We would have the confidence in ourselves and if you offered it to us a fortnight ago that we’d have three points from four going into the last game and our fate was in our hands knowing a win would get us top of the group, then we would have took it surely.
“We’d have confidence in ourselves to go down and do the business, yeah.
“We faced them earlier in the year down in Salthill and they beat us. Probably beat us by more than what was shown by the scoreline because we got a goal with the last kick of the game.
“They’ve a good blend there at the minute. They’re very strong at the back, and they’ve got that class and pace up front. There are a lot of forwards there that are very dangerous and can change a game.”
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“upset the natural flow of the game”. can’t agree with that. you have lads throwing themselves on the ground left, right and centre which is far more disruptive in my opinion, especially in the bigger knockout games when they’re a goal up. sure they had water breaks in some matches in the last World Cup which went by almost unnoticed. time for the video ref.
Also it should be easy enough to moderate the use of video techology. I.e limit the number of times it can be referred to in a game…. each coach can call for a video replay three times and no more!
About time but I would rather see it use for cheating and simulation
You can nearly tell by looking up that Barcaloni19 page on youtube that you would get 9/11 conspiracy clips in the suggested videos. Short memories, he seems to forget the second leg at Stamford Bridge only the year before.
All club have been stung over the years by bad decisions but when it’s costs a team a trophy/promotion or indeed regelation it can be hard to swallow .
If ever there was a club that benefited from extremely dubious refereeing, Barcelona is it.
The farce at Stamford Bridge
The Thiago Motta red card with Busquets peeking through his hands to see if he could stop rolling around yet
Van Persie’s second yellow for playing the ball after as the whistle was blown
And then from this tie, the Suarez non-red, the Iniesta non-red and the Torres sending off.
You lost all credibility when you said Torres was harshly sent off last week.
In that inter game the goal Barcelona got was actually offside so if they had video ref back then that goal wouldn’t have stood, and also the ridiculous motta red card would never have happened
They weren’t in the video so clearly didn’t happen.
3 for the manager is too many. Its been in hockey for a few years at the high level and only now is it really a very good system without issue of bias or unfair advantage. Currently, each team has one video refferral, which they keep if they are proven correct or in the case of “no decision possible”. When the team refers and they are mistaken, they lose the referral. Teams must refer immediately after the incident (within 3 seconds i think) and it has to be close to a goalscoring event (can’t be at midfield). It goes upstairs to a ref who avails of different camera replays. There are still instances when cameras don’t pick up the incident or it is unclear what happened although football games have so many cameras this might not be an issue. Also, there are still complaints to referees even after video referrals! In football there would be issues surrounding interpretation – handball/ball to hand for instance but these would simply have to be cleared up by rules committees. I think aswell that referees own referrals would be useful but in rugby these are taken too much in my opinion. The system works well, there is usually 3 or 4 refferals a game and they are swift and exciting. I think it would work. 6 a game would be hefty and would lead to a scenario whereby there would be a refferal by a winning defensive team over a free kick the last minute purely to waste time/stop momentum type of thing. This is not attractive to see.
Trust no one
Didn’t need last night to prove this. Just the last 30 years of diving, cheating, handballs etc etc etc