Monaghan enjoyed a dominant first half against Kerry in the Allianz League clash at Inniskeen, but the character shown to resist the Kingdom comeback was the most pleasing aspect of their victory according to defender Drew Wylie.
Wylie made his first appearance of the season for the Farney men and at half-time they looked to be cruising to a valuable two points. Ahead by seven points at one stage in the opening 35 minutes, Monaghan retired to a six-point interval lead.
David Clifford was introduced for the visitors and he had an immediate impact, kicking two frees and adding a point from play and while the gap was down to a single point in the closing stages, Kerry never mustered a levelling score even with an extra player after Barry Kerr was dismissed.
Late Monaghan points from Neil McAdam and veteran talisman Conor McManus proved the insurance scores as they came out on top in the rescheduled fixture to claim their second win of the competition.
"We showed great character, particularly in the last 10 minutes with a man down," Wylie told RTÉ Sport.
"We got a couple of turnovers and a couple of good scores. It was good that we finished strong."
Kerry will rue their slow start to the game as Monaghan enjoyed a double scores 0-08 to 0-04 advantage when they grabbed their 21st minute goal through veteran McManus.
The experienced defender said it was something spoken about within the camp this week.
"I’m happy to be back and putting on the Monaghan jersey again"
"We talked about it before the game that we wanted to start strong.
"If you let Kerry get ahead of you, we’ve seen in the last two games what damage they can do. We always knew they would come back at us, but we ground it out and stuck to our game plan."
For Wylie it proved to be a very good day at the office as his first appearance of 2018 was topped off with the man-of-the-match accolade.
"I’m happy to be back and putting on the Monaghan jersey again."
