By Shaun Casey

MONAGHAN’S last two league games are away from home, and they have a wee bit further to travel this weekend than in the last round. On Sunday, Arthur Hughes’ men are off to Birmingham to face Warwickshire before finishing the campaign away to Cavan.

Following last week’s defeat to Leitrim, Monaghan’s slim hopes of promotion are now well and truly burst as the best they can do is finish on six points. Even if they get there, Longford, currently on six points, would have them on the head-to-head, so they’d need a series of results to fall perfectly to get two or more teams on that mark.

Realistically though, their hopes are already extinguished.

Sligo are flying high at the top of the pile with four wins from four and were already out of reach for the Farney County, so the aim will now switch to finishing as high up the table as the possibly can.

Heading into the second last round of Division Four fixtures, Monaghan sit in fifth place, above the duo of Lancashire and Warwickshire. They can secure a double over English opposition with a win on Sunday.

Warwickshire march into the contest off the back of two fairly hefty hidings against Leitrim (18 points) and Sligo (37 points), so confidence will be on the floor when they welcome Monaghan to their home ground.

They’ve conceded seven majors in their three outings to date and their defence has leaked 7-76 in total. That should be a point of encouragement for Monaghan, and they’ll look to their forward line to make the most of their opportunities.

Monaghan have only picked up one win so far this season, against Lancashire, and go into the contest off the back of two defeats at the hands of Longford and Leitrim.

Their scoring tallies have been fairly meek as well, striking a combined 1-24 in those most recent outings.

If they are to return to the Emerald Isle with two more points on the board, they’ll need to rack up a better scoring tally this weekend.

All the focus for Monaghan will be solely on the upcoming Lory Meagher Cup campaign, which gets underway in April, and bigger, more meaningful match-ups with Warwickshire and Cavan are just around the corner.

Hughes and his men can use the last two league games to build up to the business end of the season and target championship success in the Lory Meagher Cup, which they last tasted as recently as 2023.