Bohemians 3 ... Monaghan United 0 Goals from Paul Byrne, a penalty, Tony Folan and an own goal from Mick Scully gave a somewhat  experimental Bohemians side a win they had to work desperately hard for over an already relegated Monaghan, who played with 10 men for almost an hour.

Byrne's penalty separated the sides at the interval. Striker Gary O'Neill got clear onto goalkeeper Wayne Russell's clearance only to be pulled down by Monaghan defender Ashley White. Cork referee Alan Kelly pointed to the spot and sent off White. Byrne sent goalkeeper John Brown the wrong way from the spot.

It was harsh on Brown, who had been excellent between the posts for Monaghan with terrific saves from Folan, Ken Oman and then Simon Webb.

It wasn't all one-way traffic either. Russell had to make a good stop from a Trevor Vaughan free kick early on, while Jonathan King chipped a shot on to the Bohemians crossbar minutes after they fell behind. Then, a minute before the break, Vaughan cut in from the right to fire over the top when he should have got his shot on target.

Full credit to Monaghan, who's heads didn't drop and they created the first opening of the second half within four minutes of the restart.

A fine piece of full-back play by Declan McDonnell wasn't rewarded as Vaughan, stretching, just failed to make the necessary touch to put the ball into the gaping net.

But Bohemians numerical advantage began to tell. Crowe ought to have done better than lob tamely into the arms of Brown from Folan's cross before they scored again on 68 minutes.

It was very much a solo effort by Folan, who collected a diagonal ball to skip by several attempted tackles and curl a superb right-foot shot beyond Brown and into the net.

The busy Brown then produced his fourth excellent stop of the night nine minutes from time when pushing out a close-range effort from Bobby Ryan.

Brown's luck was out, however, on 88 minutes when he could do little as a cross from Ryan was deflected past him by his own defender, Scully.

BOHEMIANS: Russell; Shelley, Hill, Oman, S. Webb (Rutherford 77); Byrne, Harkin (Mark Dempsey 70), Hunt, Folan; O'Neill (Ryan 70), Crowe.

MONAGHAN UNITED: Brown; J.Murphy, White, Scully, McDonnell; Meier, Shiels, O'Callaghan, King; Vaughan, McKenna.

Referee: A Kelly (Cork)