There was late drama in Tullamore this evening as Monaghan advanced to the quarter-finals of All-Ireland senior football championship at Kildare’s expense.

On a day that saw Monaghan's minor footballers advance to their county's first All-Ireland MFC final in 84 years, Conor McCarthy’s point at the death secured the Farney men a 1-11 to 0-13 victory here along with a place in Monday morning’s draw for the last eight in the Sam Maguire Cup race.

McCarthy netted the game’s only goal after four minutes at Glenisk O'Connor Park but the Lilywhites recovered well from the early blow and Darragh Kirwan’s point would see them take in a 0-9 to 1-5 lead at the interval.

Farney boss Vinny Corey introduced veteran attacker Conor McManus from the start of the second-half, but it was the Leinster side that sailed over the first two points of the restart before a converted mark from Darren Hughes stopped the rot for Monaghan.

Kirwan saw an effort come off the crossbar soon afterwards and points from Jack McCarron and Gary Mohan at the other end would make it a one-point game heading into the final quarter.

Monaghan levelled it twice during that period and, with time almost up, McCarthy was the man to snatch them victory and show Kildare the exit door in the process.

Not the first time we’ve witnessed scenes like this after a Monaghan game this year - the excellent Conor McCarthy pops up with the dramatic winning score to send the Farney into the quarter-final. Four missed goal chances killed Kildare pic.twitter.com/Lrf1TL7LFZ

— Neil Loughran (@neil_loughran) June 24, 2023

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