McKenna Cup / St Mary's College 1-13 Monaghan 0-13: St Mary's Teacher Training College, Belfast, worked hard to gain victory over Monaghan in a free flowing, if never spectacular, game in Clones yesterday.
A David Harte goal three minutes before half-time was the score that ultimately separated these sides and the student teachers were full value for their victory with John Haran and Dan Gordon excelling in midfield.
Monaghan's prospects were dealt a severe blow in the run-up to half-time as Harte rattled in the goal and the students then put over three points without reply in the final six minutes of the half to open up a five-point lead.
Monaghan got off to a promising start after the interval with a point from Damian Freeman, but St Mary's started to dictate matters again and by the end of the third quarter they had extended their lead to seven points with three unanswered scores from Leo Meenan (2) and Aidan McCarron.
Monaghan finished the game impressively and scored four unanswered points, but they failed to get the goal they needed to turn the game in their favour.
ST MARY'S COLLEGE: S Featherstone; C O'Toole, F Donnelly, P Hynes; D Harte (1-0), P Quinn, K Began; J Haran (0-2), D Gordon (0-1); L Meenan (0-2), L O'Hare (0-1), T O'Neill (0-1); M Harte (0-4), M Donnelly, A McCarron (0-2). Subs: A McGonigle for T O'Neill, J McMahon for M Harte, D McCann for K Began, R McMahon for A McCarron.
MONAGHAN: G Murphy; C Flanagan, J Coyle, G McQuaid; N Flanagan, JP Mone, V Corey; J Hughes, F Markey (0-1); T Freeman, M Slowey, M Duffy; D Larkin (0-7), R Ronaghan, D Freeman (0-5). Subs: F Doogan for J Hughes, P Finnegan for M Slowey, S McAleer for V Corey, P Keenan for G McQuaid, G McBride for R Ronaghan.
Referee: E McConnell (Tyrone).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)