Football round-up: Dominant Donegal defeat Monaghan in Dr McKenna Cup

Monaghan 0-11 Donegal 4-14

Jim McGuinness' second coming as Donegal manager could start with some silverware next weekend if they can overcome Mickey Harte’s Derry, following a comprehensive Dr McKenna Cup semi-final win over an inexperienced Monaghan side in Castleblayney.

Donegal attacked with real cutting edge in the first half, opening Monaghan up on the counter time and again to create a series of goal chances, of which they took three to gain complete control, courtesy of Oisín Gallen (two) and Jamie Brennan.

Monaghan gifted Donegal the chance to open the scoring when they coughed up possession, with Darren McDonnell out of his goals, allowing Oisín Gallen to lob into an empty net.

It set the tone for an open and error-strewn start, which saw Gallen and Jamie Brennan clip over points, with the latter having another goal disallowed for a square-ball offence.

Shaun Patton was called into action twice at the other end, both times to deny David Garland, but it was mostly one-way traffic.

Odhrán Doherty emphatically crashed home a second goal for Donegal, who led by 2-04 to 0-01 midway through the half, by which stage Monaghan had lost both Seán Jones and Conor McCarthy to injury.

Barry McBennett and Stephen Mooney kicked points for the hosts, but 1-03 in a six-minute burst by the impressive Gallen, who was called ashore at the interval with 2-04 to his name, his second major from a penalty.

The game was over as a contest by then, with Donegal leading by 3-09 to 0-03.

Mooney led the Monaghan attack in the second half as he hit six points to take his tally to 0-08, but Donegal cruised through, with veterans Patrick McBrearty and Ryan McHugh adding their names to the scoresheet, along with subs Ronan Frain, Karl Molloy and Luke