All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Qualifiers Round 3

Leitrim 0-9 Monaghan 1-19                                     30/6/18

Monaghan booked their place in the final round of All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers with a fairly comfortable win over Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon on Saturday. Conor McCarthy grabbed the only goal late on to seal a second straightforward win in the space of a week for Monaghan, who had ten scorers as they led from start to finish in glorious sunshine.

A Monaghan team showing four changes from the Waterford game put a sluggish start behind them to lead by 0-10 to 0-4 at half-time, helped by scores from McCarthy and Conor McManus. The strong-running Jack Heslin drove Leitrim forward, but they lacked the scoring power to really trouble Monaghan, who sealed their win when McCarthy palmed home his first inter-county SFC goal late on.

Monaghan now enter Monday morning’s Round 4 draw.

Leitrim: D McKiernan; P Maguire, J Mitchell, M McWeeney; J Rooney, S Quinn, N Plunkett; A Flynn, J Heslin (0-3); D Rooney, E Mulligan (0-4f), D Wrynn (Capt.); D Moran, B Gallagher, R O’Rourke (0-2).

Subs: D McGovern for Gallagher (32 mins), C McGloin for Plunkett (H-T), D Flynn for Moran (53), E Ward for Heslin (inj., 60), N McWeeney for J Rooney (66), J Gilheaney for Wrynn (70).

Monaghan: R Beggan (0-2, 1f, 1 ’45); K Duffy, C Boyle, R Wylie (0-1); F Kelly (0-1), C Walshe (Capt., 0-1), D Ward (0-1); N Kearns, D Hughes; R McAnespie, D Malone, K O’Connell (0-1); C McCarthy (1-3, 0-1f), T Kerr, C McManus (0-5, 3f).

Subs: O Duffy for Kerr, S Carey for Malone (both 44 mins), P McKenna (0-2) for Kelly (46), N McAdam for Hughes (49), D Mone for Boyle (53), Jack McCarron (0-2f) for McManus (60).

Referee: N Cullen (Fermanagh).