You could say it’s Ulster football at its best.
There’s only room for one more team to drop out of the Monaghan intermediate ranks but there are five of them in the firing line. If they do one thing best up north, it’s stubbornness.
With one fixture remaining for all relevant clubs in the Farney county’s middle tier, there’s a terrifying shootout in store for five of the bottom six as this Sunday will determine which one of them joins Emyvale on the way to junior football for 2018.
Monghan Intermediate Football League
Four teams go into a playoff semi-final, vying for senior football but, outside of that, every single team in the league is in danger of the drop and there could well be a scenario where that fate – good or bad – is decided by score difference.
On Sunday, there will be a full round of fixtures – the last game for the unfortunate five. In bold are teams who can still finish in that fatal ninth position. Remember that Emyvale are already gone.
Inniskeen v Emyvale
Aughamullen v Cremartin
Tyholland v Carrickmacross
Doohamlet v Toome
Corduff v Blackhill
Right now, Blackhill are set for relegation and they must travel to a fancied Corduff side but they go there knowing that they’d be desperately unlucky not to be safe after a win. Two points would take their season total to 16 and, even if Cremartin were to beat Aughamullen, Blackhill would just need a five-point swing to overtake Aughamullen – they won’t need any swing if Doohamlet lose to Toome and if Cremartin lost.
Those top four places are still competitive too because they head for a semi-final with fourth place pitted against top spot in the playoffs.
Doohamlet could be relegated for a second successive year. Last season, they were playing senior football. In 2018, they could be mixing it in the junior division as they sit just one point above the drop zone at present.
Aughamullen were beaten in the championship final by Carrickmacross and they too are fighting to preserve their intermediate status.
Anyone who says the league doesn’t matter never looked at a Monaghan table before.
Thanks to Pierce Callaghan for sending this our way. If you have any pieces of content you’d like to share with us, hit us up on Facebook or Twitter or send us an email at editorial@SportsJOE.ie.
