Seamus McEnaney insisted he’d still give Rory Beggan the keys of the safe despite being caught out by David Clifford’s memorable goal in Inniskeen.
When asked after last week’s draw with Armagh if he was worried how much of the game his All Star ‘keeper had spent out of his goal, Banty replied: “not at all, I’d give him the keys of the safe”.
Well, the safe was well and truly burgled yesterday with Beggan stranded out in the middle of the field and the ‘sweeper keeper’ could only watch in agony as a costly turnover was finished brilliantly by Clifford.
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Kerry ruthlessly punished Monaghan on turnovers but that was the memorable moment and the second of Clifford’s two second-half goals in the 41st minute.
Sean O’Shea scored a third goal when his attempt at a point dropped short and with Beggan slightly off his line, it dropped over his head into the back of the net on a day when McEnaney admitted they made all their mistakes in one go.
“It was our flattest performance of 2022 after three brilliant League performances,” said the Monaghan boss.
“It was a bad pass out the field (between Beggan and Darren Hughes) and when you’re playing your goalkeeper that far out the field, you can’t give away turnovers like that.
“We had to fire everything at Kerry in that second half and he was up the pitch. These things happen.
“I would trust Rory Beggan with my life. I’d give him the keys of the safe and nothing has changed.
“We were playing a team of the best calibre in Kerry and they punished us on turnovers for all three goals.”
Jack O’Connor revealed Kerry had talked about trying to catch Beggan out.
They had seen the influence he had on the game against Armagh playing way out the field and O’Connor admitted: “we wanted to put a bit of heat on him because he’s had a fierce influence on games.
“It was mentioned once or twice alright in training.
“Luckily Seanie intercepted a ball and it was a great finish by David.
“It was just a one-off. He’s a great ‘keeper. Himself and Niall Morgan are two great goalkeepers and I’m sure they’ll continue to come out the field.”
Monaghan were depleted without the injured Conor McCarthy, Jack McCarron and Ryan McAnespie and no forward scored fromplay until Andrew Woods four minutes after the interval.
They scored the opening two points, with Kieran Duffy at that early stage outscoring the man he was marking in Clifford, but that was as good as it got.
Kerry took the lead for the first time at 0-5 to 0-4 through an O’Shea free and they had a good spell before half time and were good value for their 0-7 to 0-4 half-time lead.
Monaghan did not play well with the wind in the opening half and didn’t give the huge crowd inside Grattan Park anything to really shout about.
Kerry scored a point straight from the throw-in from Diarmuid O’Connor and then two Clifford goals inside three minutes killed it as a contest.
First he received a pass from Tony Brosnan, who helped himself to 0-3, to round Beggan for a simple finish and then he finished the turnover with Beggan caught in no-man’s land.
Brosnan, Paul Geaney and Stephen O’Brien picked off scores from distance and in their heads, Kerry must have already been thinking about the bus journey home during the final eight minutes as they conceded 1-4 without reply, Conor McManus slotting home a penalty.
McEnaney said Monaghan are firmly up for the fight to try and stay in Division One.
“We will rally the troops. We need three more points to stay in Division One and we’ll do everything we can to get them.”
