Experience, the bench and a little bit of good fortune was the difference between Monaghan and Down in Armagh as the Farney men booked their place in the All-Ireland SFC last eight after a frantic, fast-paced and extremely entertaining game.
Jack McCarron was immense when he came on in the second half, as was Louis Kelly but it was a rule infringement by Conor Laverty's side with five minutes left that saw Rory Beggan put four between the teams and when David Garland made it five, they managed the game well until the hooter blew.
Down finished second in the group and are into the preliminary quarter-finals in Newry next week.
It was hell-for-leather from the start with the sides level five times in the first half and twice more in the second, with Monaghan trailing by a point 1-15 to 1-14 at the break.
Gabriel Bannigan's men began the better with points from Stephen O'Hanlon, Adam Woods and Mícheál Bannigan to lead by three with six minutes on the clock. Down's Odhran Murdock was denied a maximum in the seventh minute with a brilliant block by Ryan Wylie and when Pat Havern opened the scoring for the Mourne side with a two-point free, Monaghan netminder Beggan replied in kind to make it 0-05 to 0-02 – gifted after Havern over-carried and didn't hand back the ball.
Traded points were followed by another Havern free and another two-pointer, this time from play to make it 0-06 apiece.
Havern put his side in front for the first time from another free but two quick-fire points from Monaghan in reply from outside the arc by Conor McCarthy and Micheal McCarville changed the scoreboard in their favour once more.
On 20 minutes, some stellar work from the back saw the ball held onto by Havern, Adam Crimmins and Daniel Guinness who worked it forward to Ryan McEvoy. He booted forward to John McGeough who found the net and it was a level playing field again 1-07 to 0-10.
The first half action was far from over however, as the sides were level three more times before Daniel Guinness lost the ball through his legs on his way out of his own half. Ryan McAnespie picked it up and played on to Bannigan who slid past Down goalkeeper Ronan Burns, squaring proceedings at 1-12 apiece. Down responded well with the next three points but Beggan nailed a two-point free with the last play of the half to narrow the margin to a point at half-time.
Ward levelled with the first point after the restart and the field really opened up with traded points making it 1-17 to 1-16 to Down in the first five minutes but Down closed up ranks well again and with a lovely score from Magill and another two-point free from Havern gave Down their biggest lead yet 1-20 to 1-16.
Monaghan replied almost scoring a goal through Ryan McAnespie but he was denied with his initial shot through a combination of Danny Magill and Burns before the rebound was cleared off the line by Paddy McCarthy.
The pace of the game never let up with McCarron hitting the net after McCarthy's shot was saved by Burns and the rebound from Bannigan hit the post. That was when Monaghan had a bit of luck as the ball appeared to be picked up off the ground for the goal and Kelly tagged on a point to make it 1-20 to 2 -17.
The end-to-end battle continued and it was all square again 1-24 to 2-21 with 58 minutes on the clock but Monaghan's experience showed in the last 10 minutes scoring three of the next four points to lead by two.
The turning point for Down was on 65 minutes when they were in possession with Havern about to shoot when a breach of the three back rule gifted Monaghan a two-point free. Beggan made no mistake and Garland, off the bench, made it a five-point game. The fight was gone out of the Mournemen when Havern missed his first free of the afternoon and Pierce Laverty saw his effort come back off the post.
Conor McCrickard converted a free in the dying seconds but that was never going to be enough as Monaghan saw out the game to win 2-27 to 1-26.
Down: R Burns; P McCarthy, P Fegan, C Doherty (0-01); R Magill, P Laverty, M Rooney; D Guinness (0-02), R McEvoy; D Magill (0-04,1tp), O Murdock (0-02, 0-1f), A Crimmins (0-02); J Guinness, P Havern (0-12, 2tpf, 3f, 1tp), J McGeough (1-00)
Subs: C Mooney for J Guinness (h-t), E Brannigan (0-01) for Rooney (53), C McCrickard (0-02, 1f) for McGeough (55)
Monaghan: R Beggan (0-06,3tpf); R Wylie, K Duffy, D Byrne; R O'Toole (0-02), D Ward (0-02), C McCarthy (0-02, 1tp); M McCarville (0-02,1tp), K Lavelle; S O'Hanlon (0-03), M Bannigan (1-02), R McAnespie; A Carey (0-01), A Woods (0-02), S Mooney
Subs: J McCarron (1-03, 1f,1tp) for Mooney h-t, L Kelly (0-01) for Lavelle (48), D Garland (0-01) for Woods (55), D Hughes for Duffy (59), A McClements for Crimmins (66)
Referee: David Coldrick (Meath)
