Updated / Saturday, 29 Mar 2025 22:51
Monaghan captain Micheal Bannigan was pleased with the nature of his side's second-half performance against Roscommon at Croke Park as they [battled to come from behind and win the NFL Division 2 final](https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2025/0329/1504716-monaghans-long-range-prowess-too-much-for-roscommon/).
While much was expected of the Farney, they failed to fire in the first half at headquarters and trailed by a point at the break.
However they turned in a much improved second-half display and eventually were able to put Roscommon's resistance to bed, outscoring the Rossies by 1-6 to 0-1 in the run-in, ensuring their third ever Division 2 title.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport afterwards, Bannigan admitted that his side were disappointed with their first-half display.
"We came in half-time and we weren't that happy," he said. "We didn't use the ball as well as we would've liked.
"Roscommon got six scores straight off our turnover which we wouldn't ha"ve been happy with. But we improved off in the second half and we're very happy to come out on top.
"There's no better place to implement our style of football than in Croke Park and we were really looking forward to getting up here and showing our pace and all our quality.
"We didn't do that in the, in the first half. So we really just wanted to show that in the second half and show what we can do.
" Promotion is massive for us, but for a lot of that group, that's our first trophy. A lot of us would have played in the Under-21 final here against Tyrone but some boys didn't.
"It's very important to win a final, and especially at Croke Park. I think that'll be important for the group."
Monaghan now have a welcome break before they get their Ulster Championship campaign underway on 20 April when they face either Donegal or Derry.
Given the hectic nature of the fixture list the break is a welcome one for Monaghan and might even let them celebrate their victory in style.
"We’re lucky, we’ve got to play the winners of the Preliminary Round, Donegal or Derry," said Bannigan. "It works nice for us and it is as good a preparation as we could get.
"We’ll enjoy tonight and go again in a couple weeks."