Last season's beaten league finalists, Derry are all but out of this year's competition after they failed to overcome a dogged Monaghan outfit at Celtic Park yesterday.
The home side had most to complain about after Galway referee, Mick Curley denied them a blatant penalty midway through the second half.
Monaghan opened the brighter through a Paul O'Connor point. Derry's response was immediate and points from Geoffrey McGonigle (two) and Anthony Tohill had them 0-3 to 0-1 in front after seven minutes. But Monaghan found the Derry net in the 12th minute. An Ian Larmer 45 fell short and Stephen McGinnity, directed the ball home.
McGonigle brought Derry back on level terms shortly afterwards and with six minutes remaining until the break Derry scored their only goal of the game through Joe Cassidy.
A brace of McGinnity frees left Derry 1-5 to 1-4 ahead at the interval. There was little in the way of constructive football in the second half. McGonigle and Darren Swift traded points; Derry were denied a penalty, when Ruairi Boylan was upended Points from McGinnity and Swift (two) put Monaghan back in front, but Derry got back on terms thanks to scores from McGonigle and Brolly. With two minutes remaining Brolly scored his second point; Damien Freeman levelled in injury time.
Derry: S O'Kane; S Donnelly, D O'Neill, S McGuckin; F Crossan, J McBride, G Coleman; D Heaney, R Boylan; A Tohill (0-1), E Burns, P Murphy; J Brolly (0-2), G McGonigle (0-5), J Cassidy (1-1). Subs: S M Lockhard for Donnelly, D Dougan for Murphy, E McKeever for Coleman.
Monaghan: G Murphy; P McKenna, D McDermott, N Marron; E Murphy, D McKenna, J Conlon; C Ronaghan, J Coyle; D Swift (0-2), P O'Connor (0-1), D Freeman (0-1); P Duffy, S McGinnity (1-3), I Larmer (0-2).
Referee: M Curley (Galway).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)