By Shaun Casey

MONAGHAN’S season is on the line at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park this Saturday as they take on Longford in a must win Lory Meagher Cup encounter.

At the present minute, Monaghan sit outside the top two in the table. Leitrim claim the number one position on eight-points and already have booked their spot in the decider with four wins on the bounce.

Longford are second and two-points ahead of Monaghan, meaning the winners of Saturday’s showdown will guarantee their spot in the final. Anything other than victory will be no good for Arthur Hughes’ men.

Cavan can also finish on six-points, alongside Monaghan and Longford if results pan out that way, but they would need to rack up a massive score against table toppers Leitrim to have a hope of finishing second on score difference.

Monaghan finished second in the table last season, but that only qualified them for the semi-finals due to New York’s involvement. New York ended up beating them to reach the final, where they saw off Cavan at Croke Park to claim the title.

Monaghan’s two victories in this year’s competition have come on home turf. They beat Cavan at Clones before seeing off Lancashire by 12-points at Inniskeen the last day out.

But this weekend they are on the road, and they’ve already lost to Warwickshire and Leitrim away from home, so that will surely be a concern for the Farney men.

Longford have only lost once in the campaign so far, in round three to Leitrim, but have been scoring fairly heavily throughout and have by far and away the best score difference among the six teams in the tournament.

The Leinster men have rattled off 13 goals in four championship clashes, whereas Monaghan have only raised five green flags and haven’t hit the net in their last two contests against Warwickshire and Lancashire, the bottom two teams in the table.

Monaghan were without Conall McHugh and joint captain Niall Garland the last day out and they will be two massive misses if they don’t return in time for Saturday’s crunch encounter.

Niall Arthur did step up to the plate against Lancashire, and he hammered over 0-11 on the day while Leo Moloney and Daire Ó Maoileidigh chipped in with 0-4 apiece.

Longford look to be without corner forward Joe Rabbitt, who picked up a red card in the first half of their win over Cavan last weekend and will likely be suspended. David Buckley was also shown the line, but for a second yellow card offence.

Reuben Murray was the main man for Longford, and he finished with 0-11 (five frees) against the Breffni Blues while Michael Mulcahy, Sean Tiernan and Cathal Mullane all rattled the net in their 3-18 to 1-15 win.

Longford gained the upper hand when the pair met in the league, winning by double scores, 1-23 to 0-13. Monaghan finished second from bottom in Division Four while Longford secured promotion to Division Three.

Longford know they just have to avoid defeat to book a Croke Park date, but Monaghan have to throw the kitchen sink at it.