Monaghan 1-20 Fermanagh 1-11 Fermanagh's Ulster Championship hopes ended for another year as they went down to a strong Monaghan side in Clones this evening.

Pete McGrath's side held their own for 45 minutes but Monaghan's quality shone through in the final quarter of the game as they pulled away to run out very comfortable victors in the end.

There was little between the sides over the course of the opening 35 minutes, Fermanagh more than holding their own and were patient in possession as they frustrated the Farneymen.

The sides shared the opening six points with Tomas Corrigan (2) and Sean Quigley converting frees while the Monaghan points came from midfielder Kieran Hughes marauding half back Colin Walshe (2).

Malachy O'Rourke's side suffered a blow when the lost Hughes to a black card after only eight minutes when he pulled down Ryan Lyons but Conor McManus bagged the first goal of the game in the 15th minute.

Fermanagh were the makers of their own downfall as goalkeeper Thomas Treacy messed up a short kick out, and Jack McCarron slipped in McManus who punished the away side by slotting low to the net.

When Shane Carey then rattled over a point it put Monaghan into a four point advantage at the midway stage of the half but Fermanagh remained composed and hit back to level things.

Corrigan knocked over a free and a fine move saw Paul McCusker feed Lyons and he fired low to the net to make it 1-04 apiece with 22 minutes on the clock.

Lee Cullen and Karl O'Connell traded points while Conor McCarthy and Tomas Corrigan then laned superb individual points as it remained all square but it was Monaghan who were to grab the last two points of the half as McCarron and McManus knocked over frees to leave it 1-08 to 1-06 at the interval.

Monaghan stretched their lead to three as Neil McAdam slotted over but Fermanagh responded and points from Corrigan and Quigley had them right in the game ten minutes into the second half.

However, this was as good as it got for the Ernemen as Monaghan went on to take complete control of mattters, picking off a strong of fine scores to move into a commanding lead.

Owen Duffy made a great contribution in the second half, rifling over three points and with McManus, Malone, Kelly, McCarthy and Doogan all tagging on points Monaghan hit ten points in a row to push into a 1-19 to 1-08 lead.

Eddie Courtney and Aidan Breen did clip over late points for Fermanagh but Monaghan were never in danger as they eased through to a quarter-final meeting against Cavan.