Monaghan ruin St Francis's day

St Francis's poor home form came back to haunt them as they failed to win on their resurfaced pitch at the refurbished John Hyland Park yesterday as Monaghan United ruined their day by stealing three points thanks to an own goal.

Paul McNally was the unfortunate defender who's 13th minute mishap won the game for Tom O'Connor's much improved Monaghan.

He was unlucky to knock the ball over his own goal line after Lee King's chip over St Francis' goalkeeper, Mark Clohessy, had come back off a post.

St Francis dominated much of the remainder of the match with Colm Talbot having an effort cleared off the line by Mark Girvan in the last minute, but not before St Francis manager Pete Mahon had been sent from the dugout by Cork referee, Brian O'Regan, for disputing an offside decision.

Galway United's 1-0 defeat at Cobh Ramblers on Saturday night put them rock bottom of the National League for the first time in their history.

In an incident filled match, Galway conceded the game's only goal after 13 minutes when veteran Terry Eviston headed home Paul Coughlan's cross.

It proved enough to give Cobh their first points of the campaign and lift them off the bottom, but they rode their luck at times.

Cobh goalkeeper, Nicky Byrne, saved an Eric Levine penalty in the 28th minute, while Levine's Barbados compatriot, Ryan Lucas, also had a first-half goal disallowed.

Cobh finished the game with 10 men when left-back Tommy Cregoe was sent-off for a dangerous challenge on John Brennan late in the game. Longford Town finally came out of their defensive shell to take a game to their opponents as they played out a 2-2 draw with Athlone Town at Strokestown Road.

Longford led from Conor Frawley's 34th minute strike but needed a late Enda Kenny equaliser to earn a draw when he shot home the rebound after Chris Malone's header came back off an upright.

Athlone ought to have been on level terms by half-time but for a fine penalty save by Anthony Keenan from Keith Colsh.

But Keenan then gifted Athlone their equaliser within a minute of the start of the second-half when he failed to hold Paddy Lee's shot and Adrian Carberry followed up to score. Derek Rogers then gave Athlone a 55th minute lead when making no mistake when scoring from a second penalty.