By Shaun Casey

308 DAYS had surpassed since Conor McCarthy last started a game for club or county. That was Monaghan’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Donegal last June.

Throughout the whole club championship, that saw Scotstown end a 36-year wait for an Ulster title, McCarthy was the man to spring from the bench when the going got tough.

He never kicked one ball throughout the National League. Never saw one minute of competitive action. He entered the fray after 50 minutes as Gabriel Bannigan’s men downed their near neighbours Cavan.

But last Saturday, he was fired in from the start as Monaghan booked their place in the semi-final after a nerve-jangling, action-packed, chaotic clash with Derry.

“Every time I seem to come to the Athletic Grounds, every game goes to extra time so I’m used to it at this stage,” the versatile Scotstown man laughed.

“I’ve just put the hard work in these last three or four months to get back playing and maybe two weeks ago was probably a bit early to get back and I seemed to time it right and I’m just delighted to get back.

“I just dug in at the end. Getting that last free was the last bit of energy I had in my body so I just had enough.”

For long periods of the contest, it looked like Derry who were the team best placed to reach the provincial decider, but Monaghan kept on coming, kept on believing, and eventually got over the line.

“You do be doubting things and you do be doubting yourself on the pitch but you just have to keep going and play it minute by minute.

“When you heard the crowd get behind us and you get that bit of momentum, we’ve saw games with the new rules, momentum can swing and get on top and get a roll and we seemed to do that.

“We just kept going once we had our foot on top. I think we were 10 or 11 down at one stage but it’s a mad game and it’s hard to digest but we’re just delighted.

“Belief comes from a lot of places but mostly through the hard work that we have done in the past four or five months. We had a tough Division One campaign but a lot of boys gained a lot of Division One experience.

“We emptied our bench. Rob Hanratty came on and it’s his the first bit of championship football and I thought he was brilliant. Ryan McAnespie came back, Daragh McElearney came on, Oisín McGorman came on and was brilliant for us.

“Bobby McCaul was excellent when he came on. These lads are young lads but they’ve got that Division One experience now and they’ve worked very, very hard to get there and it’s a credit to them.”

That sets up an Ulster final with Armagh in two weeks’ time. A first Ulster final in Clones for Monaghan since 2015, when they last won the Anglo Celt. And for the Farney County followers, it’s all about giving them something to get behind.

“These people have been longing for one of these days for quite a while,” McCarthy continued. “We haven’t been able to give it to them over the last while but they deserve it because they have followed us through thick and thin.

“I know myself, playing on this team for ten years, Monaghan support always travel and you just want to give them days like this and we’ll give them another day in two weeks’ time.”