Monaghan suffer third straight defeat

Dublin 1-18 Monaghan 0-17

Monaghan’s impressive record of almost a decade without losing to Dublin in the league came to an end on Saturday evening.

Both counties have experienced Division Two football in recent years and the two-points picked up at Croke Park could go a long way to helping Dublin avoid the drop.

Joe Quigley’s second half goal, along with 0-8 from man of the match Con O’Callaghan, secured Ger Brennan’s first competitive win as Dublin manager.

Dublin were wasteful and scored just two of their 11 two-point efforts, both from O’Callaghan, while Monaghan will feel unlucky that they didn’t hit the net at least once.

Monaghan, who lost Ryan McAnespie to a hamstring injury, landed a brace of two-pointers through the brilliant Dessie Ward and Rory Beggan.

The sides were level six times throughout the opening period and it was Aaron Carey who slotted over the final score before half time, leaving the sides tied 0-7 each at the short whistle.

Gabriel Bannigan’s men registered five of the first six points after the turnaround before Dublin hit a scoring spree of their own with five on the bounce.

Micheál Bannigan levelled it while Ryan Wylie swept over a sweet score to edge them ahead. Beggan and O’Callaghan exchanged two-point efforts before the only goal of the game arrived and that pushed Dublin over the line in the end.

Dublin Scorers: Con O’Callaghan 0-8 (3f, 2tp), Sean Bugler 0-3, Joe Quigley 1-0, Ciaran Kilkenny 0-2, Nathan Doran 0-1, Ross McGarry 0-1, Luke Breathnach 0-1, Paddy Small 0-1, Greg McEneaney 0-1.

Monaghan Scorers: Dessie Ward 0-4 (1tp), Rory Beggan 0-3 (1tpf, 1f), Micheál Bannigan 0-3 (1f), Aaron Carey 0-3, Ryan Wylie 0-1, Andrew Woods 0-1, Ryan McAnespie 0-1, Oisin McGorman 0-1.