Sunday, February 7

Allianz Football League Division I**

Monaghan v Down, Clones, 2pm

Monaghan and Down come into this Ulster derby at Clones on the back of drastically contrasting results from the opening weekend of the Allianz Football League.

Ulster champions Monaghan hit 1-2 in injury-time to take a dramatic 'smash and grab' four-point victory over Roscommon in Kiltoom, Conor McManus netting the crucial goal which rescued the points for the Farney County after a somewhat below-par performance.

Down, back in Division I after promotion last year and under the management of Éamonn Burns in a league game for the first time, couldn't have gotten off to a worse start. The Mourne County were humiliated at home by Donegal, Rory Gallagher's side running riot in Newry and coming away with a remarkable 3-15 to 0-7 victory - something of a landmark result against the five-time All-Ireland champions.

Monaghan manager Malachy O'Rourke was happy with the mature way his side dug in against Roscommon. “We knew at half time that there was a strong wind there," he said. "It was a five or six point wind. We just had to keep our composure, keep chipping away and hope that things would turn. It took a while to happen but we’re just happy that we got there in the end."

However, the increasingly influential McManus warned that Monaghan would have to improve fast if they were to repeat their feat of 2015 and reach the top tier semi-finals. “We have to brush up on the basic things in our performance before we play Down," he said. "We weren’t great in the second half but we upped our performance. Roscommon came out and got the first score after half time which made it difficult for us. We couldn’t panic or start rushing things."

As for Down, the vista was bleak after the Donegal defeat. It has been a less than auspicious off-season for the Mourne County and the widely expressed fears for Down's survival hopes in the top tier were shown to be justified when Donegal played them off the field in the Marshes.

"It was a difficult night for us, back in Division I after a couple of years," said Burns. "That's the challenge for the fellas and they are looking forward to it. They are a wee bit annoyed with how they played and how the result went, but they will gather themselves up on Tuesday night and we will have a look at the DVD and set ourselves up for a go at Monaghan.

"That's not the Down mentality. The Down mentality is to face the challenge and we will do that. We will do that all year. But we know it is going to be tough."

Things are unlikely to get any easier for Down in Clones. Caolan Mooney (hamstring), Jerome Johnston and Paul Devlin are all ruled out while Arthur McConville (hamstring) is a doubt, as are Conor Maginn and Luke Howard. Add into the mix the uncertainty over the 2016 roles of Conor Laverty, Benny Coulter and Martin Clarke, and it looks as though a challenging few months are ahead for the 2010 All-Ireland runners-up.

Monaghan are still getting some players back, but with McManus, Darren Hughes, Dessie Mone, the Wylie brothers, Colin Walshe and Karl O'Connell all starting last weekend, they are largely at full strength. Veteran Paul Finlay is out of action at present with a calf injury but he gave the county a boost this week when he confirmed that he would not be retiring and was eager to get back into the panel as soon as possible.

This is the side's first league meeting since they drew in their opening round of Division II back in 2014.

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