Donegal 1-11
Monaghan 1-11

Conor McManus struck an injury-time penalty to salvage a point for Monaghan against Donegal in Ballyshannon this afternoon.

The home side had dominated large portions of the second-half, after having trailed by one at half-time, but couldn't increase their lead beyond three points as McManus landed the Farney men a share of the spoils late on.

It leaves both these rivalled sides level on eight points heading into the final round of games next weekend in the race for a Division 1 final berth.

Jack McCarron's early brace of points looked to have the visitors off to an ideal start but they'd end up shipping a Micheál Carroll goal four minutes in after Ryan McHugh and Eoghan Ban Gallagher had combined well to supply the opportunity.

Things went from bad to worse for Malachy O'Rourke's men when they had defender Ryan McAnespie stretchered off and a black card for their number 10 Dessie Ward would follow just before half-time.

Murphy landed two frees to outweigh McCarron's third as Donegal moved two in front after the opening quarter mark but their opponents recovered well.

Kieran Hughes and McCarron (free) squared things within five minutes and the Farney men edged the battle over the ensuing 15 minutes, with points from debutant Micheál Bannigan, McCarron and Owen Duffy sending them in at the break ahead by 0-9 to 1-5.

The hosts had the wind at their backs for the second-half, sailing over points from Murphy and Ciaran Thompson within a minute of the restart to take back the initiative.

Murphy continued a fine display by doubling the Tir Chonaill men's advantage on 38 minutes and when sub Paddy McBrearty landed another they looked like cruising towards a fourth win in the division.

The Farney men had other ideas however, despite losing Duffy to a black card soon afterwards, as sub Shane McCarey and McMcManus (free) trimmed the difference down to one with 12 minutes to go.

McBrearty struck the response for Donegal and when Murphy landed his seventh of the afternoon they were three up with four minutes remaining in regulation.

Monaghan couldn't get a response those minutes but did so in the early stages of injury-time after Martin McElhinney had pushed Darren Hughes in the square, leaving referee David Gough with no alternative and McManus calmly did the rest.

Donegal - M A McGinley; P McGrath, N McGee, E Doherty; R McHugh, E Ban Gallagher, P Brennan; M Murphy (0-7, 4f), C Thompson (0-1); M Carroll (1-0), M O'Reilly, E McHugh (0-1); J Brennan, H McFadden, C Mulligan. Subs: M McHugh for P Brennan, K Gillespie for N McGee, P McBrearty (0-2) for J Brennan, M McElhinney for R McHugh, M Langan for C Thompson.

Monaghan - R Beggan; F Kelly, D Wylie, R Wylie; R McAnespie, N McAdam, K O'Connell; D Hughes, K Hughes (0-1); D Ward, O Duffy (0-1), G Doogan; M Bannigan (0-1), J McCarron (0-6, 4f), C McManus (1-1, 1-0pen, 0-1f). Subs: S Carey (0-1) for R McAnespie, C McCarthy for D Ward (BC), D Malone for M Bannigan, V Corey for N McAdam, J Mealiff for O Duffy (BC), T Kerr for G Doogan.

Referee - D Gough.

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