Carrickmacross 1-13, Clontibret 1-11. Carrickmacross booked their place in the final of the Monaghan senior football championship for the first time since 1999 after they sensationally dumped out the champions with a late flourish in Aughnamullen on Saturday evening. A goal by Sean Downey three minutes from the end of normal time kick started the late flourish by Carrickmacross in a game that only sporadically reached championship proportions. Carrickmacross had the better of the exchanges in the opening 20 minutes and deservedly led by eight points to three at that stage with James Conlon dominating midfield and the Downey brothers, Sean and Mark causing the Clontibret defence quite a few problems. Clontibret however finished the first-half strongly to register a goal and four points without reply in the final five minutes of normal time and the three minutes of stoppage time that were added to turn that earlier five points deficit into a two points half-time lead. John Paul Mone converted a penalty in the 20th minute after Vincent Corey had been grounded in the square to leave the half-time score Clontibret 1-7, Carrickmacross 0-8. Clontibret extended their lead with a point from a free by Conor McManus in the opening minute of the second-half but by the end of the third-quarter Carrickmacross had fought back to parity with a brace from Andrew Callan and a point by Stephen Gollogly. The champions though were in no mood to capitulate and they regained the initiative with points by Martin Corey and a brace from Michael Hughes to lead by three with three minutes of normal time remaining and their dream of completing three in a row this year still on track. However that all changed and the dream was sensationally killed off as Carrickmacross staged a late dramatic finish with a cracking goal by Sean Downey in the 27th minute bringing them level and points by Ronan McMahon and Andrew Callan from a free throwing the championship race wide open. Teams and Scorers: Carrickmacross: Niall McCarthy, John McNally, Paul Noone, Owen Duffy, Gary McEnaney 0-1, Mark McNally 0-1, Declan Finnegan, John Conlon, Gordon Marron, Paddy Lonergan 0-1, Sean Downey 1-3 (1f), Mark Downey 0-1, Stephen Gollogly 0-1, Andrew Callan 0-3 (2f), Seamus Mulholland. Subs: Paul Conlon for G Marron, David Fox for D Finnegan, Ronan McMahon 0-1 for J McNally, Paul Keenan for S Mulholland. Clontibret: Michael Thompson, Martin Corey 0-1, John Paul Mone 1-0 (p), Padraig McGuigan, Paraic Duffy, Paul McGuigan, Rodney Gorman, Daithi McKeown, John Golden, Colm Greenan, Michael Hughes 0-2, Conor McManus 0-6(3f), Ronan Murphy 0-1, Vincent Corey 0-1, Fergal Mone. Subs: Padraig Boyle for P Duffy, Brendan Og Magennis for R Murphy. Referee: Gerry McCarron (Emyvale). Tweet

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