Allianz Football League Division 1: Dublin 1-14 Monaghan 0-16

By Paul Keane at Croke Park

Dublin's domination of the Allianz Football League continues with the three-in-a-row champions taking out Monaghan with a gutsy display at Croke Park to return to the top of Division 1, temporarily at least.
 
A third consecutive win in the campaign, thanks to Bernard Brogan's dramatic injury-time winner, maintained Dublin's 100 per cent record and moved them two clear at the top of the table.
 
Donegal can potentially join them with victory this afternoon though for now Dublin are on familiar terrain even if they had to battle hard for victory in front of 17,080.
 
The All-Ireland champions looked as if they'd done the hard part when they fought from five points down early on to lead by five in the third quarter after a Diarmuid Connolly penalty conversion.
 
But they surprisingly coughed up that advantage to trail by one with 68 minutes on the clock. At that stage it looked as if Conor McManus' thrilling 12-point haul for Monaghan would prove decisive.
 
But there was one last kick from Dublin who drew level through Cormac Costello before Brogan, who appeared as a sub in the second-half to make his first appearance of 2016, struck for an injury-time winner.
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** Monaghan set up quite defensively with just a two-man full-forward line of McManus and Darren Hughes and the ploy initially worked a treat.
 
They counter-attacked with pace and purpose and kicked five points without reply to move 0-7 to 0-2 ahead after 17 minutes.
 
Dublin were struggling to stay in the game and perhaps wondered if they'd rue the absence of icons like Ciaran Kilkenny, Michael Darragh Macauley and Jack McCaffrey.
 
But Jim Gavin's side don't do panic and had the margin back down to a manageable two-point deficit within a matter of minutes.
 
They took control from the 20th minute onwards and forced Monaghan to concede a number of frees which Dean Rock expertly converted, some from tricky angles.
 
Rock's sixth point of the half deep into injury-time helped Dublin to take the lead for the first time and they held a 0-10 to 0-9 half-time advantage.
 
A 1-1 blast from Dublin after the restart including a 42nd minute Connolly penalty conversion, after a foul on Paul Flynn, put Dublin five clear and, apparently, in pole position.
 
But they looked sluggish for the next few minutes and came painfully close to throwing away the game.
 
McManus converted three frees in a row before Shane Carey struck the post with a deflected shot. Monaghan eventually levelled it up before moving clear with McManus' 12th point of the game.
But they couldn't hold on and Costello and Brogan struck late on for Dublin to snatch yet another win at Croke Park.

Scorers for Dublin: Dean Rock 0-7 (0-6f), Diarmuid Connolly 1-0 (1-0 pen), Philly McMahon 0-2, Cormac Costello 0-2, Emmet O Conghaile 0-1, Paul Flynn 0-1, B Brogan 0-1.
 
Scorers for Monaghan: Conor McManus 0-12 (0-9f), Kieran Hughes 0-2, Owen Duffy 0-1, Kieran Duffy 0-1
 
**Dublin: **Stephen Cluxton; David Byrne, Michael Fitzsimons, Philly McMahon; James McCarthy, Cian O'Sullivan, John
Small; Denis Bastick, Emmet O'Conghaile; Paul Flynn, Diarmuid Connolly, Tomas Brady; Paddy Andrews, Dean Rock, Cormac Costello. Subs: Shane Carthy (Naomh Mearnog) for Bastick (h/t), Bernard Brogan for Flynn (42-53), Jonny Cooper for Fitzsimons (53), Brogan for Brady (54), Philip Ryan for Rock (58), Brian Fenton for O'Conghaile (61), Shane Carthy (St Vincent's) for Connolly (66).
 
**Monaghan: **Rory Beggan; Ryan Wylie, Drew Wylie, Colin Walshe; Kieran Duffy, Fintan Kelly, Neil McAdam; Kieran Hughes, Karl O'Connell; Shane Carey, Dermot Malone, Thomas Kerr; Owen Duffy, Darren Hughes, Conor McManus.
Subs: Dessie Mone for K Hughes (30), Conor Boyle for R Wylie (h/t), Ryan McAnespie for Duffy (47), Conor McCarty for Malone (56), Daniel McKenna for Carey (66).
 
Referee: Padraig Hughes (Armagh).