After years of disappointment in their opening matches in the Ulster Minor football championship Monaghan made a winning start to the 2007 series when they came with a late rally to edge past Down in Crossmaglen on Sunday evening 20th May. Following a disastrous start it looked as if it was going to be another one of those days for Monaghan but they recovered to battle their way back into contention and ultimately hold out for victory. Slack defensive work and early nerves saw Down make the most of two gift chances for goals to give Monaghan a mountain to climb when they found themselves six points in arrears after just four minutes. However the expected capitulation did not happen and all of the work that has been put into preparing these lads mentally for this championship paid dividends as they all gradually regained their composure to completely blot out the opposition. Following those two scores in the opening four minutes Monaghan did not concede another score until almost the end of the third quarter as the defence rallied to deny Down any time on the ball although they were also helped by some poor finishing from the Down forwards. At the other end though Monaghan were making life difficult for themselves as a degree of over elaboration and some errant shooting saw chances go amiss that could have at least had Monaghan level by the break if not in fact comfortably in front. There were also denied on a couple of occasions by excellent stops by Down keeper Ciaran Gordon who denied Daniel McNally twice and Gary White once when they looked to be in certain goal scoring positions. The game itself was not of a particularly high standard but it is a match and a performance that Monaghan can take a lot of positives from and if they can improve on a number of other aspects of their display they certainly have the ability to go further. Monaghan 1-6 Down 2-1. Monaghan held out for a narrow victory in this low scoring yet always interesting minor championship game that was played in front of some 3,000 spectators in Crossmnaglen yesterday evening. Two referees handled the game with Padraig Mullan coming in for the second half to replace Eugene McConnell who pulled a back muscle in the first half. Down got off to a flying start and in a replica of their game a week ago against Cavan they had two goals in the space of just four minutes. Paul Devlin rattled in the first as Monaghan failed to clear their lines while the second by Christopher Killen came when a pass out by the Monaghan keeper was intercepted with the cover gone. Monaghan opened their account through Daniel \McNally in the 6th minute but there was not to be another score until the 26th minute as both sides showed a degree of profligacy in front of gaosl although there was also some good defending by both sides. Down led at half time by 2-0 to 1-1, Monaghan's goal coming from a penalty by Mark McDevitt in the 26th minute following a foul on Gary White. That foul Conor Doyle pick up a second yellow card and Down were reduced to 14 players. Within six minutes of the restart Monaghan had drawn level with a brace from Gary White but Down hit the front again with a point from as free by Ben O'Reilly in the 8th minute. However Down were not to score again as Monaghan put up the shutters in defence and struck for match wining points from David Hughes, Mark McBride and Hughes again but it was a tense finish as Down came in search of the goal they now needed to get back into the game. Teams and Scorers: Monaghan: Kieran Boyce, Declan Farrell, Colm Greenan, Keith Hill, Mark McBride 0-1, Conor Galligan, Kieran Hughes, David Hughes 0-2, Emmet McArdle, Donal Hahessy, Mark McDevitt 1-0, Brian McArdle, Dermot Malone, Gary White 0-2, Daniel McNally 0-1. Subs: William Carroll for D Hahessy, Chris Callan for E McArdle, Down: Kieran Gordan, Conor Doyle, Ryan Mallon, Niall Higgins, Ryan Boyle, Michael Higgins, Ryan McGovern, Ruairi Digney, Eamon Toner, Paul Devlin 1-0, Conor Poland, Ben O'Reilly 0-1, Christopher Killen 1-0, Sean Murdock, Gary Trainor. Subs: Declan Kavanagh for G Trainor, Owen Pyres for S Murdock, Damien Turley for B O'Reilly. Referees: Eugene McConnell (Tyrone), Padraig Mullan (Antrim) Tweet

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