It is another busy weekend of senior football championship action in Monaghan as round 3 throws in. Group 2 fixtures take centre stage on Saturday as Killanny welcome Latton in the first game at 3:30. After an opening round win over Donaghamoyne, Killanny suffered a heavy loss to Clontibret last weekend but are still 2nd in the table as they face a Latton side who had a bye in round 1 and drew with Inniskeen on Saturday past. That was a game that the O’ Rahilly’s had been leading going into injury time before a late flurry of scores from the Grattens insured a share of the spoils. Latton manager David Lennon acknowledged to our reporter Sean Mc Caffrey after that game that they were disappointed not to have claimed the win
The other fixture in that group will see Clontibret making the trip to Donaghamoyne. The O’Neills side are top of the table with 2 wins from 2 outings and should they avoid a defeat it should be enough to secure a knock out place. As noted their latest win came over Killanny and manager Paul McCartan spoke to Sean Mc Caffrey after that victory
Inniskeen have a bye this weekend with 1 loss and a draw to their name. Manager John Mc Entee was more than happy to pick up a point when they equalised late in their game with Latton
The group 2 table has Clontibret top on 4 points with 2 wins from 2 outings. Killanny are 2nd with 1 win and 1 loss while Latton are in 3rd with a draw, Inniskeen 4th with a loss and a draw and Donaghmoyne are awaiting their first points. The top team in each group will go straight to the semi-final with 2nd and 3rd going into the quarter final while 4th and 5th will be in the relegation group. On Sunday the attention turns to Group 1 which is been headed by the defending champions Scotstown as they are unbeaten with victories over Ballybay and Aughnamullen. David Mc Cague’s side have a bye this weekend but he remarked to Fergal Monaghan after their win over Aughnamullen that they had seen an improvement in their performance from the opening weekend
Ballybay are 2nd in the table as they put their round 1 defeat to Scotstown behind them to register a victory over Corduff last weekend. Having trailed at half time, Ryan Mellon’s side put in an impressive 2nd half to pick up their first points something that he noted when speaking to Fergal Monaghan
Ballybay face Cremartin on Sunday at 5pm
Corduff and Aughamullen are the first of the fixtures in Group 1 on Sunday when they meet at 2pm. Seamus Mc Enaneys side have 1 win and a loss so far in the championship. There win came over Cremartin in round 1 before last weekend’s loss to Ballybay. Having taking in the lead at the break, last year’s beaten semi-finalists played all of the 2nd half with 14 players and speaking to Fergal Monaghan, the Banty noted that was a factor
For Aughnamullen their opening game in the championship was against Scotstown on Saturday past, where a slow start in the first half seen them tail at break and while they did putting in a better 2nd 30 minutes, manager Lee Conlon admitted to Fergal Monaghan
