Dr McKenna Cup Round Two Monaghan 3-16 Donegal 1-5:Donegal suffered their second heavy defeat of the year when going down to Monaghan yesterday in MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey.

The All-Ireland champions, fielding their second string, were never in the contest and, but for a brief scoring blitz which yielded 1-1 late in the opening half, it would have been even worse.

By the 25th minute, Monaghan were five points in front.

Kieran Hughes had the opening brace of points by the 13th minute and Paul McArdle and Conor McManus added four frees.

Willie Gillespie did great work to create a Donegal goal for Adrian Hanlon after 27 minutes before Gary McFadden added a point to reduce the deficit to the minimum, but two late points from McArdle and McManus left Monaghan 0-7 to 1-1 ahead at the break.

A goal from Keith McEneaney put the game beyond doubt and from there it was one-way traffic for the Monaghan men, who added further late goals from Dermot Malone and Darren Hughes.

Kieran Hughes was the star performer for the winners, while Conor McManus, Darren Hughes and Keith McEneaney also showed good form.

Next Up . . .

Wednesday (all 7.30pm)

Section A – Donegal v St Mary’s, Ballybofey; Monaghan v Fermanagh, Inniskeen. Section B – Down v Armagh, Newry. Section C – Tyrone v UUJ, Healy Park, Omagh; Derry v Antrim, Celtic Park.