Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan expressed his disappointment over his team’s failure to capitalize on being a man up during their All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Louth, calling it “all the more devastating.”
Louth went down to 14 players early in the match when midfielder Sean Callaghan received a red card just seven minutes in.
Despite scoring a goal in each half, Monaghan struggled to leverage their numerical advantage, ultimately falling to Louth, who secured a place in the semi-finals for the first time since 1957 with a final score of 0-27 to 2-18.
This defeat marks the first time since 2016 that no team from Ulster will feature in the All-Ireland semi-finals.
“It’s particularly disappointing that we didn’t utilize that extra man effectively, and that falls on us,” Bannigan stated.
“We never found a rhythm to fully dominate the game, except perhaps in those initial minutes before the red card when we started strong.”
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“After that point, I’m not sure if we became overly casual or a bit tentative, but our energy levels dropped, and we struggled to secure possession, create chances, and build any scoring momentum. It was a very close contest.”
Monaghan was also missing their experienced goalkeeper Rory Beggan due to injury, which allowed Under-20s captain Jamie Mooney to make his senior inter-county debut at Croke Park.
Bannigan commended Mooney’s performance but acknowledged the significant impact of Beggan’s absence. “It certainly affected us; there’s no denying it,” he said in response to questions about the loss of Beggan.
“Jamie is a young player with a lot of promise who performed well in training and has a good kickout range. He didn’t get to demonstrate that as much as he could have today.”
“By Friday evening, after the evaluations with Rory, it was clear he couldn’t play, so we had to adapt accordingly.”