Monaghan 1-13 Derry 1-11: Monaghan booked their place in the Division Two final at the expense of a wasteful Derry at St Tiernach's, Clones, yesterday. The home side had to dig deep to hold out for victory as they were forced to play almost three quarters of the game with 14 players following the dismissal of Rory Woods on a straight red card 19 minutes into the first half.
Before that, Monaghan had got off to a blistering start with Tom Freeman blasting a shot to the Derry net after a mere 10 seconds of play and they went on to add four points in quick succession before Derry opened their account through a Paddy Bradley point.
Derry then began to get back into the game, but poor finishing saw a number of chances wasted, particularly two clear-cut goal opportunities, that could have changed the complexion of the game and 14 wides in all tells its own story.
Following the dismissal of Woods, Monaghan hit a trough, but they weathered the storm to finish the first half strongly with tree unanswered points from Tom Freeman, Raymond Ronaghan and Gary McQuaid to lead by eight at the break, 1-9 to 0-4.
The opening minutes of the second half saw Derry in dominant mood and when Paul Murphy scored a goal from close range seven minutes after the restart, the game was up for grabs.
However, as is often said, when the going gets tough the tough get going, and Monaghan called on all their reserves of inner strength to contain a now resurgent Derry, who helped their Ulster rivals cause somewhat by continuing their wasteful form in front of goals.
Three points on the trot from Paul Murphy, Johnny McBride and Paul McFlynn between the 58th and 61st minutes saw Derry reduce the margin to two and set the game up for a grandstand finish.
Paul Finlay gave Monaghan some breathing space with a point from a free on 62 minutes, but a couple of points from Derry's Johnny McBride in the last five minutes of normal time reduced the deficit to the minimum and made extra-time a distinct possibility.
Monaghan were in no mood to surrender their slender lead in front of the home supporters, however, and they won the vital possession that saw them driving forward in injury-time for a precious point from substitute Nicholas Corrigan to book their place in the final against Meath and set up their championship meeting with Derry later in the summer as a real mouth-watering prospect.
MONAGHAN: S Duffy; G McQuaid (0-1), V Corey, C Flanagan; D Freeman (0-1), J Coyle, J Ward; F Duffy (0-1), J McElroy; P Finlay (0-3), M Daly, S McManus (0-1); R Woods (0-1), R Ronaghan (0-1), T Freeman (1-2). Subs: D McArdle for Coyle (yellow card), D Clerkin (0-1) for Daly, J Conlon for McQuaid, N Corrigan (0-1) for McManus, D McKernan for Ronaghan.
DERRY: B Gillis; K McGuckin, N McCusker, G O'Kane; P Wilson, P McFlynn (0-2), P Kelly; Patsy Bradley, J McBride (0-4); G Donaghy (0-1), C Gilligan, Paul Murphy (1-1); Paul Bradley, Paddy Bradley (0-2), M Lynch. Subs: Pádraig Murphy (0-1) for Paul Bradley, F McEldowney for P Kelly (yellow card), M Kelly for N McCusker (yellow card), K McCloy for K McGuckin (yellow card), C Moran for G Donaghy.
YELLOW CARDS: Monaghan: James Coyle. Derry: P Kelly, K McGuckin, N McCusker.
RED CARD: Monaghan: R Woods.
Referee: M Hughes (Tyrone).
