By Niall Gartland

THIS is it for the Monaghan minors – no more second chances. They were swatted aside by a slick and powerful Tyrone side on their last day out and now it really is sink-or-swim time in Saturday’s Ulster Championship quarter-final clash against Donegal at Convoy.

This is the second time they’ve met Donegal this season having carved out a hard-earned two-point victory in the league, but this time there’s much more at stake with both teams’ championship hopes on the line.

Managing the Monaghan minors is Mayo native Joe O’Boyle, a member of the teaching staff at Our Lady’s Secondary College, Castleblayney, who has resided in Monaghan for several years. He says they’re embracing the challenge of their knock-out encounter.

“Look, you train all year to be part of games like this and days like this. I think the championship structure has been very, very good.

“You get one chance at it in terms of the jeopardy side of things, but these are the days you want to be part of and train for. We’re really looking forward to Saturday. It’s knock-out championship football and our players are really looking forward to it.”

The way it’s worked out, Monaghan have had an extra week’s preparation than Donegal. Donegal were home and hosed when their match against Down at Convoy was abandoned due to a waterlogged pitch, and they finished the job at the second time at asking last weekend, though it was a significantly more competitive contest, Donegal prevailing with two points to spare at the final whistle.

O’Boyle commented: “Donegal were 17 points up when the game was abandoned and that turnaround can be difficult. These players are 16 and 17 years of age and a lot of them maybe haven’t experienced that sort of turnaround before.

“It was a tough ask for Donegal to start again and it was tight the whole way through. Donegal are a quality outfit and managed to get the win. It would have been a brand new experience for both the Donegal and Down players. At the end of the day, though, it was championship football, a knock-out game. Donegal got the result and they move on.”

Referring back to their disappointing defeat to Tyrone, O’Boyle acknowledges their opponent’s superiority on the day and chalks it down as a learning experience.

“Tyrone were excellent. We’d no complaints about the result. I thought Tyrone were very strong all over the pitch. After the game, we looked at our own performance and there were certain areas we felt we needed to improve on. But on the day, we could have no complaints – they brought a hunger and that’s something we need to look at going into knockout football against Donegal this weekend.”