Madness.
After a drab encounter unbefitting of the Omagh sun, Fermanagh smashed late and grabbed it all when an Eoin Donnelly goal in injury time fired them to a shock one point victory over a stunned Monaghan, and all the way to their first Ulster final since 2008.
In an extremely disciplined performance, Rory Gallagher’s men frustrated the hell out of a subdued Farney army, and though the game looked like it had gotten away from them late on, nobody will begrudge them of a shot at winning their first ever provincial title.
For Malachy O’Rourke’s men, it was another case of getting caught in a game that they really should be winning. This, whether it be complacency, or, indeed a systems failure against teams that set up in the same way they do, has become their Achilles heel in recent times.
In the last few years, they’ve lost to Longford in the qualifiers, to Down here last year, and now Fermanagh here.
The underdogs set up in the manner that suits them best and they deserve huge credit for that. They dragged Monaghan down, and this turned into a real Ulster dog fight.
There were a number of yellow cards, black cards and feisty clashes in Tyrone.
Fermanagh sub Ryan McCluskey was sent to the stands in Omagh before he had even entered the playing field, for example.
Wearing his Maor Uisce bib and carrying a water bottle around the place, the man who was named as the Erne County’s number 26 on the programme did enough to get on Conor Lane’s bad side, and the Cork referee had no hesitation providing him with his marching orders in the first half.
Indeed, the man in the middle was kept very busy and he issued a number of cards during the afternoon’s play, including a carta buí to both Conor McManus and his man-marker Shay Cullen.
After the Monaghan sharpshooter had kicked an uncharacteristic wide ball, the big, burly Fermanagh number three appeared to goad him a little too forcefully and from there it all kicked off.
The pair dragged out of each others’ jerseys, and a visibly frustrated McManus, presumably on the back of that sledging, and his lack of involvement in the game up to that point, reacted as Cullen will have wanted him to.
Soon after Kieran Hughes was booked as things got fairly scrappy in a dull, disciplined exercise in Tyrone.
This was a regrettable pattern of the day, and it was best summed up when a late black card for Monaghan had the same consequences as a red after they had used all of their subs.
Fermanagh set up as you would expect them to, rigidly and defensively, but what was fairly surprising was Monaghan’s retort – with Malachy O’Rourke’s farneymen meeting a defensive wall with another defensive wall.
With neither teams placing much value in their half forward lines, it was a game restricted to long shooting, and unfortunately, neither team had their shooting boots on, culminating in a dull spectacle, despite the odd impressive long ranger.
Fermanagh are leading Monaghan by 0-6 to 0-4 at the break in the Ulster SFC Semi-Final! Here are the first half highlights! pic.twitter.com/7Lus13iJZ6
— The GAA (@officialgaa) June 3, 2018
It was only after the hour mark when substitution and captain Colin Walshe pointed them into a 0-8 to 0-7 lead. This would be the first time they’d lead all afternoon, though they’d refuse to relinquish it.
Then, Fermanagh’s Eoin Donnely struck for a sucker-punch goal against the run of play in injury time to provide them with a one point lead.
Fermanagh's Eoin Donnelly hits the back of the net! pic.twitter.com/55zRa5WOgQ
— The GAA (@officialgaa) June 3, 2018
And from there, Monaghan had no response.
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