By Shaun Casey

Monaghan’s rollercoaster of a season came to an end on Sunday when they lost out to Louth in a dramatic All-Ireland quarter-final.

The Wee County were reduced to 14 men in the ninth minute, with midfielder Sean Callaghan seeing red after a frontal challenge on Oisín McGorman, but Monaghan couldn’t make the extra man count.

Gabriel Bannigan’s side were one of the stories of the season, having been relegated from Division One in the league without picking up a single point, to subsequently reaching the Ulster final and Croke Park.

But that offered little consolation for Bannigan, who was “gutted” with how their last-eight fixture turned out, with Louth winning by four in the end to book their place in the semi-final where they will face Mayo.

“First thing I have to say is congratulations to Louth, they produced a mighty championship performance and they had a man less for the good part of that game,” the Aughnamullan man said after the game.

“It makes it all the more devastating for us that we didn’t make good use of that extra man, that’s on us. We never managed to find a period in the game where we were completely on top, apart from the first seven minutes before the red card when were 4-0 up.

“We had started really well but after that, I don’t know if we were a little bit casual or little bit timid or what, but the energy levels just didn’t seem to be there. We just weren’t getting our hands on enough ball, we weren’t creating enough chances, we weren’t putting scoring runs together.

“The game was very tight, it was tit-for-tat right down to the final few minutes. They got some big calls there in the last ten minutes and they got extra energy from somewhere that we didn’t get in the last ten minutes – they got a big impact off their bench.

“We didn’t get as big an impact as we did in other games. At this moment in time, I am just gutted we are out of the championship.”

Monaghan started without goalkeeper Rory Beggan and midfielder Karl Gallagher, both ruled out through injuries picked up in the last round against Westmeath, with Jamie Mooney stepping in between the sticks for his debut.

“It was such a tight turnaround with Rory’s injury, he was scanned on Monday and we got it confirmed as a hamstring injury,” Bannigan explained.

“He’s a goalkeeper, not a middle eight player, so we were then trying to figure out if his hamstring would heal enough to play the game, albeit in a restricted way.

“The level of restriction that Rory was going to have and the potential further damage that playing would do, we had to weigh that up as against putting in someone who was 100 percent, albeit very inexperienced.

“That was the call we had to make, and come Friday evening, with the testing that was done, it wasn’t an option to play Rory and we had to get on with it.

“With Karl Gallagher, he came off with an ankle injury against Westmeath. We gave him the week, up to Friday evening but on Friday evening, his ankle wasn’t able to take weight.

“So he was too uncomfortable, he was never going to be able to play, no matter how much strapping we put on him. But when you talk about all week, you have one training session, that’s all you have in such a tight turnaround.”