{"id":559375,"date":"2026-06-29T04:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/559375\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T04:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:55:11","slug":"fourteen-man-louth-battle-past-monaghan-to-reach-first-all-ireland-semi-final-since-1957-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/559375\/","title":{"rendered":"Fourteen-man Louth battle past Monaghan to reach first All-Ireland semi-final since 1957 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

All-Ireland SFC quarter-final: Louth: 0-27 Monaghan: 2-18<\/b><\/p>\n

Overcoming adversity is often what sets apart the great Croke Park performances down through the years, and such sheer battling heroics of Louth<\/a> has won them a place in the All-Ireland football semi-final for the first time since 1957.<\/p>\n

That was the same year Louth went on to win the All-Ireland, although let all that talk lie for another day \u2013 with Mayo later drawn as their semi-final opponents. Because after this hotly contested quarter-final, their arrival into the rarefied air of the last four teams in contention is perfectly satisfying for now.<\/p>\n

Trailing Monaghan<\/a> by a point with just three minutes left to play, the Wee County suddenly found fresh reserves of belief, determination and energy to fire over the last four points in succession \u2013 three coming off the boots of replacements Ciar\u00e1n Byrne and Tadhg McDonnell, whose powerful interventions ultimately helped seal the magnificent act of defiance.<\/p>\n

Louth captain Sam Mulroy was also inspiring as ever in setting up the last of the game-ending points for Ryan Burns, Mulroy brilliantly flicking the ball pack into his own possession, just when it seemed he was running out of space and time. Burns duly obliged from the pass, and just like that Louth were up by three points.<\/p>\n

It left Monaghan desperately chasing a goal inside the last 60 seconds to save their championship hopes, and in the frantic and thrilling climax they did draw one last foul close to goal \u2013 only for Stephen Mooney to kick the possession away. Byrne won back the ball in time for the hooter, after which he stood in front of the Hogan Stand, arms held aloft, to the wild roars of appreciation from the Louth supporters.<\/p>\n

They say losing a player to a red card can prove catastrophic under the new all-out attacking rules of the game, and when Louth midfielder Se\u00e1n Callaghan was sent off after just seven minutes of play for a high shoulder tackle into the head of Ois\u00edn McGorman, Louth were suddenly staring adversity in the face, already down four points to nothing.<\/p>\n

\"SeánSe\u00e1n Hurson referee gives a red card to Se\u00e1n Callaghan of Louth. Photograph: James Lawlor\/Inpho <\/p>\n

But when they drew level just minutes later, Dara McDonnell helping himself to the first two-pointer of the afternoon, Louth clearly weren\u2019t letting the numerical disadvantage drag them down. Twice more Louth faced adversity, when McGorman finished off Monaghan\u2019s first goal, 20 minutes into the first half, and again on 53 minutes, when Stephen O\u2019Hanlon palmed home their second goal.<\/p>\n

Both those scores might have been enough for Monaghan to start driving home the advantage of their extra man, but instead Louth closed out the first half with four unanswered scores, including a two-pointer from Ciar\u00e1n Downey. In front at the break 0-12 to 1-7, it was evident Louth would not be lying down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everything\u2019s possible,\u201d Louth manager Gavin Devlin said of his team\u2019s performance. \u201cParticularly when you come from where these boys have come from over the last six years. From the place they were to what you\u2019ve seen out there today, they had to jump obstacles, one after the other. It\u2019s par for the course with these boys. They get nothing handed to them and they have to work so hard for everything to get.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, we were in a really difficult place, particularly with new rules. We know that. Keeping three up and trying to defend with 10 and then you have Stephen O\u2019Hanlon out the back door, trying to mooch, getting on ball. And he\u2019s breaking lines left, right and centre. You\u2019re left with a tricky question. Do you defend with nine or defend with 10? You have all these hurdles that you\u2019ve got to overcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we found a way in that first half. Even at half-time, we discussed the hurdles we had jumped over and what we had to do was continue to jump over them. We had to do that right to the bitter end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the throw-in Monaghan were handed some adversity of their own, goalkeeper and inspirational leader Rory Beggan unable to start due to the leg injury sustained in last weekend\u2019s win over Westmeath. Jamie Mooney, fresh off their under-20 team, stepped in between the posts, admirably held the fort, even if Louth\u2019s superiority under the kickouts was also telling as the game progressed.<\/p>\n

\"Monaghan'sMonaghan’s goalkeeper Rory Beggan missed the game through injury. Photograph: James Crombie\/Inpho <\/p>\n

McDonnell produced a man-of-the-match display at centre back, winning nine kickouts on his own, Louth finishing with 11 different scorers in all. James Maguire and the excellent Burns added four each, Byrne and McDonnell contributed a massive 0-6 off the bench. Even after Monaghan moved back in front by a point after O\u2019Hanlon\u2019s goal, neatly set up by Mooney, they just couldn\u2019t shake off the steely resistance of Louth.<\/p>\n

Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan was gracious in defeat, accepting his team possibly didn\u2019t make enough of the extra man: \u201cI think the first thing I have to say is congratulations to Louth,\u201d said Bannigan. \u201cThey produced a mighty championship performance with a man less for a good part of that game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose it makes it all the more devastating for us that we didn\u2019t make good use of that extra man. That\u2019s on us. We never managed to find a period in the game where we got completely on top. Apart from probably the first seven minutes before the red card when we were four-nil up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started really well. After that, I don\u2019t know whether we went a little bit casual or a little timid or what, but the energy levels just didn\u2019t seem to be there. We just weren\u2019t getting our hands on enough ball. We weren\u2019t creating enough chances. We weren\u2019t putting scoring runs together. So the game was very tight. It was tit for tat, as you know. Right down to the last few minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

After taking out Armagh two weeks ago, with a last-second goal, Louth\u2019s inner belief and resolve was also carrying them through. Monaghan had a couple more goal opportunities in the first half, which may have created even more adversity for Louth. But in this sort of form, is there anything they can\u2019t overcome?<\/p>\n

Louth:<\/b> N McDonnell; E Carolan, D McKenny (0-0-1), D Nally; C McKeever, D McDonnell (0-1-0), C Lennon (0-0-1); C Early (0-0-1), S Callaghan; J Maguire (0-0-4), S Mulroy (0-0-5, two frees), C Grimes; K McArdle (0-0-1), C Downey (0-1-0), R Burns (0-0-4).<\/p>\n

Subs:<\/b> T McDonnell (0-0-3) for McKeever (40 mins), P Matthews for Grimes (42 mins), T Durnin for Early (55 mins), Ciaran Byrne (0-0-3) for McArdle (56 mins), C Keenan for Maguire (66 mins).<\/p>\n

Monaghan:<\/b> J Mooney; R Wylie, K Lavelle, D Byrne; D Ward, R O\u2019Toole, C McCarthy (0-1-1); M McCarville, O McGorman (1-0-0); A Carey, M Bannigan (0-0-4, one free), S O\u2019Hanlon (1-0-0); J McCarron (0-2-1, 1tpf), A Woods (0-0-4), R McAnespie.<\/p>\n

Subs:<\/b> S Mooney (0-0-1) for McAnespie (41 mins), M Maguire (0-0-1) for Carey (49 mins), D McElearney for McGorman (55 mins), D Garland for Woods (63 mins), R Hanratty for Ward (65 mins)<\/p>\n

Referee:<\/b> Sean Hurson (Tyrone)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All-Ireland SFC quarter-final: Louth: 0-27 Monaghan: 2-18 Overcoming adversity is often what sets apart the great Croke Park…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,131567,6,19,17,11,12,131566,15,16,64890,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-559375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-football-championship","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-louth-gaa","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-monaghan-gaa","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116831619546769431","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}