Monaghan United 4 - 2 Mervue United

• Peter Hughes
• Sat, Sep 19 2009


An abundance of goals resulted as an injury-hit Monaghan United eventually subdued a spirited Mervue United on a 4-2 scoreline in this highly entertaining clash at Kingspan Century Park.

With seven regulars confined to the sidelines, Monaghan started tentatively and Mervue could have gone ahead on 20 minutes when David O’Dowd forced his way through on goal and unleashed a shot that was bound for the top corner until Monaghan goalkeeper Aaron McCarey made a fine save.

However, ten minutes from the interval, Monaghan poured forward in numbers and virtually overwhelmed the Mervue defence, Darragh Hanaphy evading the dive of ‘keeper Eoin Martin to thump his shot into the top of the net.

A magnificent passing movement in the 49th minute, started by Cathal O’Connor and ended with a beautiful finish on the run by Karl Bermingham, gave the Monaghan fans a second goal to savour. And the game was apparently put beyond Mervue’s reach in the 67th minute when Bermingham added his second, after some selfless work by young Monaghan substitute Philip Donnelly.

Not for the first time, however, Monaghan nodded badly in defence and this time they were punished, Pat Hoban blasting home after 71 minutes to give the visitors some hope.

It proved short-lived – Martin was caught in an agony of indecision when he left his box to clear a back pass and Donnelly, making his Monaghan debut, profited to stroke the ball into the vacant net (73).

But Mervue bounced back again, forcing a 79th minute penalty, which Hoban stroked home. And they gave Monaghan some nervous moments in the closing stages, substitutes Dan Cunningham and Rory Gaffney recording near misses.

MONAGHAN UNITED: McCarey; McKevitt, Flynn, Lynch, Whelan (Donnelly h-time); O’Connor, Berminghan, McCrossan, Grimes; Hanaphy, Freeman.

MERVUE UNITED: Martin; Farrell, O’Rourke, Danaher, Curran; Crehan, Browne (Cunningham 87), Hoban, Ludden (Lee 68); Tierney (Gaffney 63), O’Dowd.

Referee: D Coombes.