Monaghan manager Malachy O’Rourke reckons that their “championship know-how” saw them over the line against Cavan in Breffni Park.
The home side went into a four-point lead midway through the second half and the 2013 Ulster champions had to dig deep to eventually record a one-point win, with star forward Conor McManus hitting seven points.
“I think our experience and, I suppose, a wee bit of championship know-how told in the end,” O’Rourke told RTÉ Sport.
“[In] the second half, Cavan started off very well and I think halfway through the half they were four points up so it left us with an uphill battle.
“But I thought from then on we actually started to play better football.
"We controlled the play better, we used the ball better, we got Conor on the ball more inside [and] kicked a couple of great scores.”
"Halfway through the half they were four points up so it left us with an uphill battle"
Cavan boss Terry Hyland, meanwhile, was left to rue some indiscipline by his side with black and yellow card sanctions affecting their game plan and shape.
He said: “Probably Martin Reilly’s black card was a major issue for us because he’s one of our link-men and ball-carrier going forward, him going off [may have cost us].
“Plus we had to take off two lads who picked up two yellows so we kind of lost our shape, we lost our centre-half back and a midfielder because of that.
“But they are the rules and you have to be very careful with black cards and lads with yellow cards so perhaps we lost a little bit of our shape for that 10 or 15 minutes.”
