IN 2013 Donegal were the defending All-Ireland champions and after they had won back to back Ulster titles everyone expected a third on the trot.

Monaghan’s last Ulster title came way back in 1988, and since then they  had played in an Ulster final twice, in 2007 and 2010, and were beaten by Tyrone twice.

Their Ulster Championship saw them beat Antrim in round one, and then they edged their rivals Cavan out in the semi-final by a point. Only the very optimistic gave Monaghan a chance of beating Donegal.

Yet Colin Walshe said that the Farney men had been given great confidence by their manager Malachy O’Rourke.

“I remember that we were very relaxed going into that game. I remember Malachy had us in a good place. We had played two games, and we had two wins and we weren’t overly under pressure. We were underdogs and Donegal were big favourites as they were All-Ireland champions.”

We might presume that Monaghan were nervous about the game. But the opposite was the case.

“We were confident that we were going to win,” Walshe said.

“We were in a good place. We didn’t think Donegal were as strong as people thought they were. They had some injuries going into the game. Karl Lacey had been injured though he was named to start.

“But we were in a good place and we were quietly confident.”

They were confident because they knew how the game was going to break down. they had a good idea what Donegal were going to.

“Most teams back then were playing with a sweeper and we knew that Donegal would probably drop a forward back. We weren’t worried if it was going to be four on five or five on six. We were expecting Donegal to drop Mark McHugh back but that would give us an extra one in the forward line.”

Monaghan had played Cavan in the semi-final and O’Rourke had opted to play a strong attacking team. But he switched that up for the final so that they would be more defensive. Tommy Freeman and Christopher McGuinness had started the semi-final, but they were subs in the final.

“He brought in Dermot Malone and Pauric Donaghy to start, but they hadn’t started in the championship at that point but had been going really well in training.”

According to Walshe, their inclusion was important for O’Rourke’s plan.

“We decided that we were going to go for a really frantic start, a hard-working start, and that’s why those two lads came in. We wanted to lay down a marker. We wanted to work really hard at the start.

“We had seen that in Donegal games they would be cagey at the start. They played a lot of men  behind the ball so if they turned the ball over they could break.

“We wanted to match that and have men that could match their intensity but we also wanted to have men to come off the bench when the game opened up.”

Monaghan wanted to have runners who could match the likes of Mark McHugh and Frank McGlynn, and Anthony Thompson. They would break out the field, and Monaghan’s Donaghy, Malone, Stephen Gollogly, were there to keep tight to those guys who could fast break.

They felt that in the second half the game would open up, there would be more space and then Tomas Freeman and Christopher McGuinness would be sprung from the bench and they would take advantage of the space and attack Donegal’s rearguard.

“The plan was to get a good start and stay in front. Donegal loved to get a lead and sit on it. We got a good start, and got a five nil lead and it left it that we could play the game on our terms. We were very tight at the back and they were laboured going forward and they didn’t have that space to break into. That laid the foundations for the performance.”

Monaghan had led 0-5 to 0-2 at half time. Their first four scores came from Darren Hughes, goalkeeper Rory Beggan, Conor McManus and Pauric Donaghy.

It was the Beggan score that was important as he hit a free over from 45 metres out. He would ping another one over in the second half.

Walshe felt that that first half score was important to unsettle Donegal.

“Nobody really knew about that. He’d been practicing those long range frees in training and had been nailing them. That range was typically out of the scoring range for teams, but we knew that he was going to be hitting them. No one would have seen that.”

At half time Monaghan were feeling great according to Walshe. He said that they felt fit and ready for the second half.

What was also important was that they weren’t one dimensional. Walshe said that Kieran Hughes on the edge of the square provided another problem for Donegal.

“We knew that we didn’t want to give turnovers, but we accepted that we would have to give some away. So we sent a few balls into Kieran Hughes and he won a few. We had to have variety that we weren’t running the ball the whole game.

“There were a few balls that went into Kieran that worked well.

“We knew that we had to bring something a wee bit different. But the key was getting in front and staying in front. Donegal in that period, if they got that lead they were not going to give it up. So getting those early scores for us was important.”