Monaghan in control against London
Monaghan rattled over two points from Nicholas Corrigan and Dick Clerkin in the opening minutes and they should have been further ahead before London opened their account with a point from a free by Paul Hehir in the 9th minute.
The introduction of Tom Freeman during the second quarter injected new life into the Monaghan attack and towards the end of the half they began to exert an increasing influence.
Freeman was now causing all sorts of problems and Monaghan finished the half strongly with four unanswered points between the 28th and 33rd minutes to lead at the break 0-7 to 0-3.
Within five minutes of the restart Monaghan had extended their half- time lead to six points with two early frees by Paul Finlay. But, just as at the start of the match, they did not capitalise.
London then hit a good spell that saw them hit three points without reply to reduce the deficit to three points after 12 minutes and leave the game finely balanced.
That however, was as good as it got for the visitors, with Monaghan striking another purple patch that yielded four points in as many minutes from Raymond Ronaghan, Dick Clerkin (two) and Tom Freeman to go seven up and effectively wrap up victory.
: G Murphy, JP Mone, J Coyle, E Lennon, D Duffy, J Conlon, V Corey, E Lennon, J Hughes, G McQuaid, P Finlay (0-3), D Clerkin (0-3), N Corrigan (0-2), R Ronaghan (0-2), D Freeman (0-1). Subs: T Freeman (0-4) for G McQuaid, C Flanagan for J Conlon, D McArdle for P Finlay, F Doogan for V Corey, P McKenna for Edmund Lennon.
: J Kinahan; S Murphy, N Kane, O Fitzgerald, P McConigly 0-1, M Drea, C Scanlon, G Kane, J Carmody, B Egan, C Foody, P Quinn, S Byrnes, P Hehir (0-6), B McDonagh (0-1). Subs: JP Breslin for J Carmody, G Weldon for S Byrnes.
: S Smith (Meath).
