BY KEVIN CARNEY
So much for the Dr. McKenna Cup being a planet removed from mother Earth.
Football’s bluebloods have all but finished swatting each other in this season’s Ulster’s subsidiary competition and, already, it’s clear that the cream has risen to the top.
By dint of their handsome 2-12 to 1-4 semi-final win last weekend, Tyrone can now prepare for their eighth McKenna Cup final inside the last ten years.
Meanwhile, holders Derry are now just 70 minutes away from back-to-back titles, having overcome Down by 0-11 to 0-9 in their penultimate round …

By Colm Shalvey
Just nine days remain until Monaghan begin their Allianz National Football League Division Two campaign, with a high-profile trip to Navan first up for the Farney men.
Monaghan manager Eamon McEneaney has been forced to field teams missing some of his regular first-choice players in recent weeks with college commitments the main reason for absentees. McEneaney wasn’t happy at being so short of full-strength throughout January, but it did give him the opportunity to try out more new players in the ongoing quest to build a strong panel.
Monaghan won …

With the 2012 Premier Division season 6 weeks away, Roddy Collins sent out a team of old favourites and newcomers to take on Newry City in the first pre-season game at the Showgrounds. The experimental nature and manager’s instructions to not worry about results and to treat the game as a training session was a factor in the 2-1 defeat.
The back four had a familiar feel with Conor McMahon back from his long layoff due to injury and he was joined by Keith Quinn, Aidan Collins and Alan Byrne …

An excellent attendance participated in Monaghan United’s AGM at the clubhouse on Thursday last. The contributions were very positive and everyone involved in United’s promotion to the Premier Division were complemented on the night. Much of the discussion on the night centered on the incoming season which is due to kick off at Gortakeegan on Friday 2nd March against Dundalk. One of the positives from the meeting was the sense to get involved and assist the club and teams by those in attendance at the meeting.
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
I would like …

By John Graham
For Monaghan the Dr McKenna Cup game against Doown was a game where nothing went the way they had planned or the way they hoped. Mark Keogh was beaten four times but did well with a couple of other efforts although his positioning was partly responsible for one of the goals.
Dermot Malone was the pick of the Monaghan defence while Carl O’Connell and Ronan McNally tried hard along with Vinny Corey but it was an area that was under severe pressure at times.
Carl O’Connell was particularly unlucky …

Gardai confirmed yesterday that they are pursuing a definite line of enquiry into the vandalism at the Roman Catholic church in the grounds of St Davnet’s Psychiatric Hospital in Monaghan Town on Saturday last.
The perpetrators broke a window to gain access to the church, where they discharged fire extinguishers and caused other criminal damage.
Sunday morning Mass at the church had to be cancelled because of the incident.
The vandalism was roundly condemned at Monday night’s meeting of Monaghan Town Council.
Independent councillor Seamus Treanor …

Pictured are Orla Mc Phillips, Lauren Murphy and Muireann O’ Rourke from Ballybay Community College, Monaghan who won the Environment Agency Special Award for their project “Septic tanks: Old versus new!” at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012 which was held at the BT Arena at Dublin’s RDS. Pictured giving the award was Annette Cahalane,  Communications Manager   EPA.
A delighted principal Moya Lynch stated ‘We are so proud of the girls and their achievement and the EPA award bears testimony to the huge workload undertaken …

By Michael McDonnell
michael@northern-standard.ie
The old adage about words coming back to haunt the speaker was, from a Fine Gael perspective anyway, painfully highlighted this week in a YouTube video that shows the current Minister for Health Dr James Reilly promising the crowd at a Monaghan Hospital rally in 2008 that the day he would let local hospital services be taken away when there was nothing to replace them was “the day I’ll walk away; I’ll retire”.
The video of Dr Reilly promising the huge gathering in Monaghan’s Church Square in …

By Kevin Carney
Trying to extrapolate championship results this coming summer on the basis of Dr.McKenna Cup results is a fool’s occupation. However the opening round results from this year’s subsidiary provincial competition do, at least, suggest that team-managers have now all got the ‘nothing beats winning’ theory firmly encoded in their brain cells and the vim and vigour shown by their charges last weekend said as much.
On the basis of last Sunday’s results, it appears that the provincial powerbrokers are determined to give the students a right ‘oul lesson.
Competitive victories …

St Mary’s manager Paddy Tally possibly summed it up best when he said that the McKenna Cup particularly in the opening game was about performance more than anything else. His Monaghan counterpart agreed with that and was pleased that his side got off to a winning start this year as opposed to a very disappointing opening in 2011. Carl O’Connell Tyholland, Tommy O’Neill, Ballybay and Ciaran Daly, Donaghmoyne had their first senior inter county outing on Sunday last while James Bellew, Emyvale, Ronan McNally, Tyholland, and David …