Monaghan 1-13 Derry 1-12: National League champions Derry have been knocked out of the football championship thanks to a controversially awarded injury-time free that was dispatched by Monaghan's Tommy Freeman.
With the sides locked at 1-12 apiece, referee David Coldrick showed no hesitation in handing the initiative to Seamus McEnaney's men as extra-time loomed. Stephen Gollogly appeared to slip when challenged by Christopher McCaigue in the last minute of this enthralling match in Clones but the Meath referee even cautioned the Derry substitute.
On the overall balance of play the result is deserved as Derry were chasing the hosts for much of the contest, only putting themselves into a winning position on 56 minutes when McCaigue added their third consecutive point.
Gollogly levelled matters soon after before Paddy Bradley and Shane Smyth swapped scores to set up the grand finale.
Monaghan should have been in complete control at half-time after rattling off 1-3 down the stretch, combined with some stern defending that restricted the Derry marksmen to long range shooting. With Tommy Freeman well marshalled, Ciaran Hanratty and Gollogly contributed two points each while the goal came off full forward Vincent Corey breaking a Rory Woods free into the square allowing Dick Clerkin to toe-poke past John Deighan.
However, Derry responded with an Enda Muldoon score from distance before a speculative Paddy Bradley shot fell short for his brother Eoin to capitalise on a rare defensive lapse by Monaghan to leave just two points between them at the turn - 1-7 to 1-5.
Derry manager Paddy Crozier refused to speculate on his future afterwards but his three-year tenure appears to be over. Monaghan go into the draw for next Saturday's second round qualifiers.
Monaghan:1 P McBennett; 2 D Mone, 3 JP Mone, 4 D McArdle; 5 D Freeman (capt), 6 D Hughes, 7 P McGugian; 8 E Lennon, 11 D Clerkin (1-0); 10 C McManus (0-1), 13 R Woods (0-1), 12 S Gollogly (0-3); 19 C Hanratty (0-2), 14 V Corey, 15 T Freeman (0-5,
two frees). Substitutes: 21 S Smyth (0-1) for D Hughes (47 mins), 17 N McAdam for P McGuigan (53 mins), 9 B McKenna for D Clerkin (67 mins)
Derry:1 J Deighan; 6 G O'Kane, 3 N McCusker, 4 J O'Kane (0-1); 5 L Hinphey, 23 K McCloy (capt), 21 M McBride; 8 F Doherty (0-1), 9 Patsy Bradley; 30 R Wilkinson, 14 Paddy Bradley (0-4, two frees), 12 E Muldoon (0-1); 18 C Devlin (0-1), 10 M Lynch
(0-2), 15 E Bradley (1-1). Substitutes: 22 C McCaigue (0-1) for L Hinphey (half-time), 13 C Gilligan for R Wilkinson (47 mins), 11 P Murphy for E Muldoon (50 mins), 19 J Diver for K McCloy (62 mins), 17 J Conway for Patsy Bradley (68 mins)
Referee:D Coldrick (Meath)
Fixtures / Results
All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers Round One
Monaghan 1-13 Derry 1-12
Tipperary 0-06 Westmeath 0-15
Donegal 3-11 Roscommon 1-09
Limerick v Meath 7pm
Longford v Laois 7pm
Kildare v Cavan 7pm
Offaly v Down 7pm
Louth v Tyrone 7pm