By Shaun Casey

BOTH Monaghan and Lancashire are pretty much out of the promotion race in Division Four but with two games remaining until the end of the league, pride will still be at stake inside the two changing rooms on Sunday.

Arthur Hughes’ Farney men have picked up two points from their four outings to date, with a round three victory over Warwickshire their only triumph. They’ve lost out in their other games to Louth, Fermanagh and most recently Leitrim.

Monaghan were in a good place heading down the final stretch in last week’s meeting with Leitrim, played in Longford, but collapsed in the final quarter and lost by five.

The Connacht men outscored their Ulster foes 1-6 to 0-1 in that final 20-minute spell to keep their promotion hopes alive. It means that Monaghan are now just two places above last spot, with Lancashire and Warwickshire both sitting below them.

Niall Arthur impressed in the forward line for the men in blue and white and finished with a tally of 0-11. The Inniskeen man demonstrated his undoubted accuracy in front of the posts from placed balls and punished any breach of discipline in the Leitrim defence.

Only two other players got on the scoresheet for Monaghan in the 70-plus minutes of action, with Niall Garland (0-3) and James Slevin (0-2) both raising white flags and in their 1-18 to 0-16 defeat.

As always in the league, Monaghan don’t have long to lick their wounds and will be straight back into action this weekend. Focus will have almost entirely shifted to Lancashire in training already.

The English side have just one point to show for their efforts and have suffered three defeats as well. Their solitary point came in a draw with Warwickshire.

They’ve suffered narrow defeats to the likes of Leitrim (five points), Longford (two points) and Louth (14 points) and with the exception of the last day out, have been much more competitive than the league table suggests.