The credo of semi-finals has always suggested that sufficient unto the day is the victory thereof. This bad, ugly game which saw Derry through to another league final was an exception. Much of the pushing, shoving and shape-throwing had its context in the two games played between these sides last summer and the one they will play in seven weeks' time. That was small consolation to those of us who had to watch it.

Monaghan duly exited the league after a sprightly campaign which has seen them beat three Ulster rivals and develop into contenders. Yesterday was a setback surely, but the team's demeanour afterwards suggested that there were lessons to be learned from the occasion and they were keen to absorb them.

For their part Derry roll on into another league final and if this wasn't one of their best footballing performances they did enough to warn us that the sturdy virtues upon which past successes have been built are still intact. Their midfield of Anthony Tohill and Dermot Heaney got through a mountain of work and their defence grafted well enough to deny Monaghan the oxygen of goals for just the second time this league.

The attack had a workmanlike day, but in mitigation Eamon Burns retired early with an injury and Seamus Downey and Joe Cassidy were feeling their way back in. There was enough there, though, to suggest that on a hard sod and a fine day Derry will be an interesting attacking team to watch. League finals are no novelty to Derry and it was little wonder that afterwards Derry were quietly content to draw the positive aspects from a game marred by increasing negativity.

"I was happy with the way we played in spells," said Tohill, "we have been improving gradually since Christmas. Today we came to win and we did. They gave us trouble in patches, but we treated them with respect and that paid off."

Tohill's concise summary does the game justice. Had Monaghan played as well throughout as they did for patches of either half the game might have gone to the wire. As it was, the next seven weeks will be spent divining whether Monaghan played as well as they can or as well as they were let.

Monaghan settled earliest yesterday, nipping two points from play in the opening 10 minutes, while Derry contented themselves with a converted free from Eamon Burns. As the game began to take shape, however, Derry strangled the life out of the supply lines to the nippy Monaghan forwards and the free-flowing movement amongst the Monaghan forwards which has been a feature of their winter never developed.

Meanwhile Derry just got on with business. Tohill hit a 45 to level the scores before Seamus Downey, Gary Magill, and Dermot Dougan hit three from play in the space of 10 minutes, Dougan's score from a particularly tight angle being the highlight of the sequence. That run of play gave the scoreboard a reflection of Derry's dominance around the middle third of the field where Tohil was getting the better of a determined Pauric McShane and Heaney was working with his usual quiet diligence.

In attack, Derry were making particularly good progress down the right wing where Magill was picking up a good quantity of ball.

When Monaghan look back on this game and where it might have worked out differently they will reflect upon a disallowed goal in the second half and a missed chance in the 22nd minute of the first half when McGinnity fed Declan Smyth at the end of a fine move only for Eoin McCloskey in the Derry goal to produce a fine save. The impact of that close call was all the more evident a few minutes later when a lofted ball from the right corner by Henry Downey was caught by Joe Cassidy on the edge of the Monaghan square. Cassidy's close-range shot bounced awkwardly off goalkeeper John O'Connor and took Edwin Murphy by surprise as he slipped backwards over the line clutching the ball.

Murphy's misfortune might go down as the first instance of north south co-operation in this new era, but it would be fairer to investigate why Cassidy was allowed to catch unimpeded in the square. Derry went to the break with a five-point advantage and throughout the second half Monaghan only managed to whittle that margin by one. Derry's application to their task throughout the game was such that Monaghan never managed to string together more than two points without being interrupted by a Derry score.

In the midst of this Derry had sufficient awareness of themselves as a work-in-progress to allow Henry Downey and Sean Martin Lockhart to switch positions as the shape of their championship 15 continues to settle. Monaghan had a goal disallowed midway through the second half when, according to who you listened to afterwards, Mark Daly was decreed to have been in the square or to have palmed the ball home. Either way the game declined sharply thereafter.

Johnny McBride, who had been having a Punch and Judy show with Daly for the preceding 10 minutes or so, was sent off a couple of minutes later as tempers frayed further. Derry dominated the final minutes as Monaghan heads dropped slightly and the sense of distraction and bad temper was underlined when Stephen McGinnity (dismissed last summer as well) was sent to the line for a foul on Gary Coleman with just a minute to go.

The sourness and niggling was explained away afterwards with reference to the familiarity these teams have with each other and the knowledge that their championship clash is just over the next hill. Derry professed themselves pleased to have another competitive outing before then and on a fine day Offaly's pacey style should tell them a little more about themselves.

Derry: E McCloskey; K McKeever (capt), H Downey, J McBride; P McFlynn, SM Lockhart, F McCusker; A Tohill (0-4, all frees), D Heaney (0-1); G Magill (0-2), G Coleman, E Burns (0- 1, a free); J Brolly (0-1, a free), S Downey (0- 2), D Dougan (0-1). Subs: J Cassidy (1-0) for E Burns (19 mins); B Murray for Brolly (53 mins); J McGurk for H Downey (60 mins).

Monaghan: J O'Connor; E Murphy (capt), G McGurk, N Marron; D McArdle, S Mullen, J Conlon; P McShane (0-1), C Ronaghan (0-1); D Freeman (0-3, two frees), M Daly (0-1), K Hughes (0-1); D Smyth (0-1, a free), D McKiernan, S McGinnity. Subs: C McAree for Conlon (23 mins); P Duffy for Hughes (halftime); D Swift for McKieran (half-time).

Referee: B White (Wexford).