Scotstown suffered an 11-point loss to Kilcoo in last season’s Ulster Club semi-final and the sides will meet again in this year’s decider
The Box-It Athletic Grounds hasn’t exactly been a happy hunting ground for Scotstown.
Having lost three Ulster Club Finals at the venue since 2015, they booked their place in the 2025 final after a remarkable penalty shootout win over Newbridge on Sunday.
To say the game was dramatic would be the understatement of the century as Newbridge fought back from being 10 points down to force extra-time with the final kick of the game. They repeated the feat in extra-time with their captain Conor McAteer scoring the vital points on each occasion.
Alas, he wasn’t to be the match-winner. That honour fell to Darren Hughes, the man who put his side 10 points clear in the early stages of the second half and the man whose ice-cool penalty settled an epic encounter in favour of the Monaghan champions.
Now, they face Kilcoo. A little over 12 months ago, the perennial Down champions hit Scotstown for five goals in a one-sided provincial semi-final rout in Armagh City.
Hughes says that loss stung more than any Ulster Club final defeat.
“Yeah it did. We got a lot wrong coming here last year (against Kilcoo), said Hughes.
“We didn’t play well, we didn’t set up well and left ourselves wide open. Thankfully, we’re allowed to keep four back now so we won’t be caught out like that straight away!
“We didn’t play well here last year. We didn’t do ourselves justice and they took their opportunity and made hay with it. Here, we have a lot of wrongs to right now in the next few weeks.”
Hughes has won two Ulster titles with Monaghan and 10 Monaghan SFC titles with Scotstown.
He retired from county duty, aged 38, back in August and he knows that he might not get another opportunity to claim a provincial title at club level.
“Probably now because I know there’s not many big days left for me. . . to win this for the club would be something special but we’ve been here before,” added Hughes.
“We’ve lost three times so we’ll do all in our power not to lose again.”
During his stellar 19-year Monaghan career, Hughes played in every line for the Farney, including in goals against Armagh in 2010.
He is still as versatile as ever, even if he isn’t able to state what position he plays for Scotstown.
“I don’t know. I’m not going to tell you any lies! I don’t know what I’ll be at out here,” added the Monaghan legend.
“I’m in the middle eight there anyway and sometimes I’ll be in the back four to let Rory (Beggan) up when I’m tired and that.
“I started at full-forward at the start of the year and we felt it wasn’t working. I wasn’t scoring enough or I wasn’t good enough and I got out to the middle and out the field and it’s working so far.”
As far as taking a penalty in a shootout in a provincial semi-final? That’s all in a day’s work for a seasoned campaigner like Hughes.
“We dug in and probably called in all our experiences from before and got over the line eventually,” said Hughes.
“I’ve been a regular penalty taker now over the years from way back, so I had no bother stepping up.
“It was a nice safety net knowing that they had two missed and there was that bit of comfort that you could relax and get up to it and it’s nice to get the job done.
“We’ve been here before, Trillick a couple of years ago, the county final this year (against Inniskeen). We’ve been to extra-time in big games and there were cool heads, calm heads and calling on them experiences because we’ve lost games in extra-time too and you’re always trying to learn.
“We probably had chances in the second half of extra-time and didn’t put them away, but credit to Newbridge – they kept at it and, thankfully, we got there in the end.”
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