A solitary goal from striker Keith O'Connor gave Longford Town a 1-0 win away to Monaghan United as Stephen Kenny's pacesetters reopened a three points lead at the top. O'Connor struck for the only goal after 20 minutes when shooting home the rebound after John Grace could only parry Richie Parsons's shot.
The result was harsh on inform Monaghan who were hoping to stretch their unbeaten run to six games.
Paul Smyth and Brian O'Sullivan wasted first-half chances before Colm Notaro was guilty of a bad miss when scooping the ball over the bar from yards out on 73 minutes.
Home Farm/Fingal, despite finishing with nine players, took a point from promotion chasing Kilkenny City at Whitehall on Saturday night to deprive them of a win that would have put them third in the table.
Having raced into a 3-0 lead when beating leaders Longford Town 3-2 a fortnight ago, Home Farm scored twice inside the opening 24 minutes courtesy of a sensational debut from Ben Kelly, on loan from Shelbourne.
Aidan Forde led Kilkenny's revival with a goal in first-a-half injury-time. Davy Walsh equalised with a 59th minute penalty after Martin Beggs handled. However, Beggs, also sent-off in the Longford match, was red-card for a second book-able offence on 74 minutes and was then joined by striker Richard Foran eight minutes from time.
Cobh Ramblers scored twice inside the final two minutes to beat St Francis 2-0 at St Colman's Park.
St Francis goalkeeper Cathal Warfield was beaten when Willie Byrne volleyed home a Michael Stapleton free-kick on 88 minutes. Paul Coughlan skilfully added the second in time added on.
