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\nDublin forward Con O’Callaghan in action against Monaghan’s Ryan O’Toole<\/p>\n
Finally, Dublin have managed to beat Monaghan in the Allianz Football League and they couldn’t have picked a better time to do it.<\/p>\n
Pointless after two Division 1 games and desperate not to be pulled into a relegation battle, Ger Brennan’s side finished strongly at Croke Park to come out on top.<\/p>\n
They trailed by three points after Rory Beggan’s two-point score from a long-range free in the 60th minute.<\/p>\n
But substitute Joe Quigley’s 63rd-minute goal on his league debut capped a terrific comeback from Dublin who outscored Monaghan by 1-05 to 0-01 in the final 10 minutes or so to win with a little to spare.<\/p>\n
It was Dublin’s first league victory over Monaghan since 2017 having lost four times, and also drawn, in meetings between 2018 and 2024.<\/p>\n
Con O’Callaghan was excellent for Dublin too, tallying 0-08 and lofting over two two-point scores in the second half that kept them in the game when Monaghan were threatening to put clear daylight between the teams.<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n Bugler enhanced his reputation as well, scoring three important points, while there was a decent kick from the bench with subs providing 1-01 in the crucial final quarter of the game.<\/p>\n
\nDublin forward Con O’Callaghan in action against Monaghan’s Ryan O’Toole<\/p>\n
The win lifts Dublin off the foot of the table ahead of their Round 4 clash with Kerry, back at Croke Park under lights next Saturday. But it’s official now that Monaghan, still awaiting the return of key players from injury, are battling the drop after three defeats.<\/p>\n
The Dubs were returning to Croke Park for the first time since their Round 1 defeat to Donegal. They followed that with a loss in Mayo, after which boss Brennan made it crystal clear to his underperforming players that change was coming.<\/p>\n
And he was as good as his word, partnering up Ciar\u00e1n Kilkenny at midfield with Brian Howard. There were returns too for Ballyboden duo Ross McGarry and Alex Gavin who’d received an extended break after their county final success. In the second half, aside from Quigley’s debut, there was a seasonal return for midfielder Peadar O Cofaigh Byrne.<\/p>\n
McGarry wore number five but played in attack and had a first-half goal chance that struck the woodwork.<\/p>\n
Luke Breathnach might have rattled the net too when clean through but blasted just over for the Dubs.<\/p>\n
Monaghan couldn’t crack the code at the other end either. Hugh O’Sullivan, wearing number 16 but drafted in beforehand for Evan Comerford, thwarted the speedy Stephen O’Hanlon and later Ryan McAnespie and Ois\u00edn McGorman with saves.<\/p>\n
Close to half time, Ward came sliding in at the back post at the Hill 16 End and palmed the ball onto the post and wide.<\/p>\n
It was that sort of a half with not a lot coming off for either side despite their efforts.<\/p>\n
The conditions didn’t help with rain being blown across the field on a biting cold wind.<\/p>\n
They were deadlocked at the interval on 0-07 apiece with Ward’s two-pointer – that made it 0-06 to 0-04 – the standout score of the half.<\/p>\n
Ward was brilliant in the third quarter, taking the game by the scruff of the neck for Monaghan with two more points. He also won a free that Bannigan converted and then assisted Ryan Wylie for a point.<\/p>\n
When Beggan then converted a two-point free, Monaghan were 0-16 to 0-13 up and looking good to maintain their strong Division 1 record over Dublin.<\/p>\n
But King Con came to Dublin’s rescue, nailing a two-pointer from play that ignited the hosts and when Bugler played in Quigley for the goal, they took a lead that they held onto.<\/p>\n
Dublin: Hugh O’Sullivan; Eoin Murchan, Nathan Doran (0-01), David Byrne; Niall Scully, Brian Howard, Alex Gavin; Ciar\u00e1n Kilkenny (0-02), Charlie McMorrow; Luke Breathnach (0-01), Se\u00e1n Bugler (0-03), Ross McGarry (0-01); Paddy Small (0-01), Con O’Callaghan (0-08, 2 tp, 0-02f, 0-01 45), Lorcan O’Dell.<\/p>\n
Subs: Peadar O Cofaigh Byrne for Breathnach (47), Greg McEneaney (0-01) for McMorrow (49), Killian McGinnis for McGarry (51), Joe Quigley (1-00) for O’Dell (56), Niall O’Callaghan for Kilkenny (62).<\/p>\n
Monaghan: Rory Beggan (0-03, 1 tpf, 0-01 45); Darragh McElearney, Cameron Dowd, Ryan Wylie (0-01); Ryan O’Toole, Dessie Ward (0-04, 1 tp), Ois\u00edn McGorman (0-01); Miche\u00e1l McCarville, Gary Mohan; Karl Gallagher, Miche\u00e1l Bannigan (0-03, 0-01f), Stephen O’Hanlon; Aaron Carey (0-03), Andrew Woods (0-01), Ryan McAnespie (0-01).<\/p>\n
Subs: Fion\u00e1n Carolan for McAnespie (31), Liam McDonald for Gallagher (53), Eddie Walsh for Woods (59), Darragh Treanor for McGorman (67).<\/p>\n
Referee: Liam Devenney (Mayo).<\/p>\n
Watch Allianz League Sunday from 9.35pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow a live blog on all matches on the RT\u00c9 News App and on rte.ie\/sport. Listen to Sunday Sport on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finally, Dublin have managed to beat Monaghan in the Allianz Football League and they couldn’t have picked a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-298491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}