Recap as Monaghan stun Roscommon in Clones as Connacht champions exit All-Ireland series
Clones has many iconic pubs and beer gardens, but Monaghan and Roscommon are in the last-chance saloon this evening.One of them will exit the 2026 All-Ireland Championship this evening. Monaghan brought Armagh to extra-time at St Tiernach’s Park in last month’s Ulster final after being 10 points down. They beat Derry in the Ulster semi-final after trailing by the same margin at half-time.They were 11 points in arrears against Mayo at half-time in Clones in Round One and lost by one point.If Gabriel Bannigan’s men are to win today, they’ll surely need to be quicker out of the stalls.The Farney attack has been blunted by the loss of the livewire Bobby McCaul, whose presence at full-forward rattled Mayo to their core before his game and indeed his season was ended by a cruel ACL injury - his second in 14 months.Stephen O’Hanlon is fit only for a place on the bench as is Ryan McAnespie while Darragh McElearney returns from suspension to take his place in the match-day 26.Roscommon were brought back down to earth with a bang against Tyrone, just 13 days after their brilliant Connacht SFC final win over Galway.Mark Dowd is also missing a massive player in his forward line for today’s clash with Enda Smith ruled out.The Rossies still have the in-form Diarmuid Murtagh, Darragh Heneghan and Colm Neary to call upon and they beat Monaghan by six points in the League.As the Championship has already illustrated, time and time again, League form counts for little. This is knockout football for Monaghan and Roscommon and we’ll have live score-by-score updates from 4.30pm.
