By Shaun Casey

WITH Sligo and Longford beginning to pull away at the top of the Division Four of the National Hurling League, Monaghan and Leitrim are simply playing for pride this weekend
says Monaghan manager Arthur Hughes.

Monaghan have lost to both table-toppers, sandwiching their one victory over Lancashire, and while promotion looks to be out of their grasp with three games remaining, the Farney County certainly don’t want to lose again.

Hughes’ men have Leitrim on Sunday in Inniskeen and then see out their league campaign on the road to Warwickshire and old rivals Cavan before heading into the Lory Meagher Cup in mid-April.

“From the start of the year, it looked like Sligo would be one of the finalists and it was between us three and Longford for who would join them.

“Longford have stretched ahead so realistically we’re all playing for third place,” said Hughes.

“You don’t know what you have until you have all your men together and truth be told, there’s not a real pile at stake in the Leitrim game but pride for either of us because it’s as close as a dead-rubber as you can get.

“We’re not going out to lose and I’m sure they’re not going out to lose so you’re just going to find out more about some of the players you have and give the younger players some game time and that’ll give us an idea of who’s ready for championship and who’s not.”

Monaghan have been missing a couple of key men through the early stages of the league, but Hughes is pleased that some are starting to make their way back into training and into the team.

They will be minus half-forward James Brady this weekend, who misses out through suspension, but they should head into the contest on home turf with a stronger hand than in previous outings.

“James Brady got a red card against Longford, so he’ll be missing for a couple of games but some of the boys that were on holiday are back.

“The likes Oisin Hagan should be back, Leo Moloney is probably another couple of weeks away.

“Rowan McMahon missed the last game as well so he should be back. Slowly but surely, we’re getting numbers back, but you still have to keep working away.”