Monaghan...3-9 Donegal...1-10: Monaghan had to battle hard to overcome a spirited Donegal side in a closely fought Ulster final at Clones yesterday.

Donegal will rue nine first-half wides and the crucial sin-binning of Dianne Toner in the second half but on balance Monaghan shaded it, with Brenda McAnespie scoring a goal in each half.

McAnespie scored an early goal and Edel Byrne and Orla Callan added to Monaghan's tally, but Mo O'Donnell kept Donegal in touch with four first-half points. Sheila Campbell added two more to leave the game level, 1-3 to 0-6, at half-time.

Jenny Greenan opened Monaghan's account in the second half and then Toner was sin-binned.

Monaghan then took control of the game and McAnespie scored her second goal to leave five points between the sides.

Donegal responded with a goal from Bernie Gallagher to reduce the margin in time for Toner's reintroduction.

The teams traded scores for much of the second half but with only four minutes to go, sub Bonnie Fleming scored a goal to put Monaghan six points clear.

In the junior final, Armagh scored 2-12 in the second half to come from behind and beat Cavan 2-19 to 1-9.

MONAGHAN: V Quigley; D Toal, M Croarkin, C Reilly; M Lavelle, C Brady, C McGuinness; J Greenan (0-1), C Mulligan; E Byrne (0-3), N Kindlon (0-3), T McNally; O Callan (0-1), B McAnespie (2-0), D Dempsey. Subs: A Smith (0-1) for Croarkin (half-time), A Tierney for Callan (half-time), B Fleming (1-0) for Dempsey (55 mins).

DONEGAL: C McHugh; M Doherty, M Devenney, D Dunnion; A McDonnell, D Toner, C McGrory; N Stapleton, Y McMonagle (0-1); A Doherty (0-1), B Gallagher (1-1), S Campbell (0-2); M O'Donnell (0-5), D Lee Fox, K Lacey.

Referee: Brendan Gallagher (Tyrone).