Monaghan 0-13 Galway 0-12

A draw would have been sufficient to ensure Monaghan’s promotion to division one and a place in the division two final for the third time in nine years, but Paul Finlay put the icing on the cake.

His winning point, two minutes into stoppage time, put a halt to Galway’s comeback.

Reduced to 14 men with the dismissal of goalkeeper Thomas Healy, the visitors had fought back to parity having been behind from the opening minutes of the match.

Galway came to Clones with five points from their six outings and everything to play for to ensure their survival in division two. To their credit, they did enough to have at least taken something out of this game. Manager Alan Mulholland expressed his disappointment.

"I thought we had done enough to at least get a draw and I think a draw would have done Monaghan as well because we put in a big effort, particularly after going down to 14 men and having to rejig almost our entire line out".

Strong start
Monaghan started brightly and had four points on the board in the opening nine minutes. Galway registered their first score in the 13th, with a point from Michael Lundy.

Cathal Mulryan added a second, capitalising on a poor kick out, and the sides exchanged points several times in the second quarter.

However, Galway could only close the gap to two points twice and Monaghan were worth their half-time lead of 0-8 to 0-5 with the wind making life difficult for forwards on both sides.

On resumption Gary O’Donnell and Michael Martin reduced the deficit to one point in the first seven minutes.

Monaghan responded, with points by Fintan Kelly and Conor McManus to forge three ahead but by the 15th minute Galway had the margin down to the minimum again thanks to Michael Martin and Paul Varley.

In the early minutes of the final quarter, substitute Paul Finlay restored Monaghan to a two-point lead.

Body blow
Galway was dealt a body blow when keeper Thomas Healy was red-carded following an off the ball incident with Conor McManus.

Kieran Hughes stretched the lead to three points in the 22nd minute with an opportunist score but by the end of normal time Galway had drawn level with points by substitutes Adrian Varley and Shane Walsh as well as a point from a free by Paul Conroy.

Conroy in fact had two chances from long-range frees to put Galway in front but was off target from both.

Monaghan soaked up the pressure in the closing minutes before Paul Finlay snatched the winner.

“Paul was the perfect man to have in that position at that stage as Galway had made life difficult for us but it is nice for the boys to be going to Croke Park now and to have kept our home record intact,” said Monaghan manager Malachy O’Rourke.

MONAGHAN: R Beggan; C Walshe (0-1), D Wylie, F Kelly (0-1); D Mone (0-1), V Corey, K O'Connell; D Clerkin (0-1), P O'Hanlon; G Doogan, S Gollogly (0-1), K Hughes (0-2,1f); D Malone (0--1), C McGuinness, C McManus (0-3 , 2f). Subs: D Hughes for D Clerkin, P Finlay (0-2) for P O'Hanlon, J McCarron for C McGuinness, P Donaghy for S Gollogly, C Galligan for D Mone.

GALWAY: T Healy; D O'Neill, F Hanley, J Moore; G Bradshaw, G O'Donnell (0-1), P Varley (0-1); J Kavanagh, T Flynn; M Lundy (0-1), E Hoare, C Mulryan (0-1); M Martin (0-3, 1f), P Conroy (0-1, f), S Armstrong (0-2, 1f). Subs: A Varley (0-1) for E Hoare, M Breathnach for M Martin, S Walsh (0-1) for C Mulryan, D Cummins for M Lundy, K Kelly for F Hanley, M Farragher for S Armstrong.

Referee: A Nolan (Wicklow).