By Shaun Casey

SCOTSTOWN are the dominant force in Monaghan, and have been for over a decade, but goalkeeper Rory Beggan insists they won’t be taking their eye off the ball this weekend. They take on Clontibret on Sunday in what is their 12th county final in a row.

It’s the fifth occasion where they’ll share the stage with Clontibret, and the record is split 50-50 of the last four meetings in the decider. And with Conor McManus back to full fitness for the O’Neill’s club, Beggan is wary of the threat Clontibret pose.

McManus picked up a hand injury in the opening round of the group stages, forcing him to sit out of the campaign until he returned to kick 0-6 as they overcame Ballybay to reach their first final since 2019, the last time they got their hands on the Mick Duffy Cup.

“When you have one of the best forwards in the opposition team, it’s going to make any team a whole lot better and it’s going to bring confidence to everybody else,” the 2018 All-Star netminder said of his Monaghan teammate.

“Clontibret are a good team all over the pitch and we’re had some good battles with them down through the years. They’ve always been 50-50 games with Clontibret so when he’s on the other side of the pitch, you can never really relax.

“We have some good defenders there that will be really tested with him but with Clontibret they have dangers all over the pitch. Conor is a tough man, if you try to guess one thing about him, he’ll do the opposite.

“Boys are watching Conor year in and year out and they probably know as much about him as I do. He’s a player that you’d nearly be happy enough to give three or four points to if that’s all he gets in a game.”

Scotstown went all the way to the Ulster Club final last season, but lost out to Glen by three points with the Derry boys claiming All-Ireland gold after that. While Monaghan is the focus at the minute, that burning ambition of an Ulster title is still shining brightly in Scotstown.

“It’s a long way away since the Ulster Club final last year so it’s just nice to get,” added Beggan of reaching the decider. “We’re delighted to be back in another county final and there’s another massive test coming up now.

“Of course it’s an ambition, it’s a goal for us. We’ve been in that (Ulster) final three times now and we haven’t got over the line and there will be judgement against us. Can we get over the line? That’s a question we have to answer for a lot of people.

“The older brigade in Scotstown have two or three of these titles, maybe more, and they’ll always hold that over us. It’s something that we always want to get to but when you start to look too far ahead, you will get caught.

“For us, it’s all about this Sunday and we’ll just take it game by game. Ulster is a goal, absolutely, I’ll not hide that fact, but we’ll worry about that when it comes to it.”