MONAGHAN beating Armagh on Sunday was not a major shock but the manner in which they beat them certainly was.
The Orchard men started off brilliantly and everyone thought it was going to be the Steven McDonnell show but fair play to Monaghan who fought back and looked very impressive in the end.
The major talking point at the start was using Darren Hughes in goals who played well in his debut in that position.
Though I was surprised that Armagh did not test the rookie keeper with a few high balls into that area in the opening few minutes.
The sending off was a major incident in the game but I feel Monaghan would still have won the game and they will fancy their chances of reaching an Ulster final.
They have a great half back line and they completely destroyed Armagh’s midfield.
But I was really impressed with their forwards who were on fire with Conor McManus and Tommy Freeman torturing the Armagh full back line.
Monaghan are not a nice team to play against as they play on the edge at all times. They are a physical team who like to try to intimidate and bully teams.
Sunday’s performance will give them plenty of confidence for the remainder of the season and they should be in the shake up come August time.
Armagh were hugely disappointing and they can use the dismissal of Brian Mallon as an excuse but at that stage the game was slipping away from them.
Most of their defence was cleaned out with Paul Duffy being the only plus point.
Armagh has been strong all year in centre field but they were outmuscled in this sector and Paddy will certainly want to rectify that before the qualifiers.
The most worrying factor though was that when Monaghan finally closed the door on the supply to Stevie that Armagh had no other outlet to create and score chances.
Young Jamie Clarke showed flashes of brilliance but they need to get Ronan Clarke back to fitness quickly because he will be able to win the dirty back and to offload the ball to Jamie and Steven.
Well done to Louth who pulled off a major shock by beating Kildare on Saturday.
This result was coming for the Louth players as they have won a division two title and the O’Byrne Cup in previous years.
Kieran McGeeney will be under severe pressure to get a few wins in the qualifiers but I think he has the drive to get the best out of his players,