Sporting Fingal 4-0 Monaghan United

Sporting Fingal got back to winning ways against Monaghan United on Friday night thanks to Conan Byrne's hat-trick at Morton Stadium, which lifts them into second place in the League of Ireland First Division.

Fingal gained dominance early on and had the best of the early chances with Gary O'Neill and Conan Byrne both coming close to opening the scoring.

Shane McFaul then shot narrowly wide as the home side continued to pressurise the Monaghan goal.

Monaghan's best chance of the half came when Barry Clancy's corner fizzed across the Fingal net, only to go wide, leaving the game scoreless at the break.

Monaghan opened the second half when a clearance rebounded off Shane McFaul and was superbly tipped over by McGann. This gave Fingal further confidence and only seconds later O'Neill's effort from Brian Gannon's cross went just over.

With this, the game began to open up in favour of the home side and they eventually opened the scoring on 63 minutes when Byrne latched onto a cross to volley past McGann.

Byrne then doubled his tally with a superb effort, beating two
defenders before finding the bottom corner.

The midfielder's night got even better minutes later when McGann's free kick was won by Philly Byrne. The ball found his namesake, who spotted McGann out of position and volleyed home from 40 yards to complete his hat trick.

Fingal did add a fourth on 85 minutes corner when Shaun Williams found the net with a header.
Sporting Fingal (4-3-3): Quigley; Gannon, P. Byrne, G. Whelan, Frost; Bayly, McFaul (James 84) Williams; C. Byrne, O'Neill (Corcoran 78), Kirby (Fitzgerald 87)

Monaghan Utd (4-4-2): McGann; P. Whelan, Lynch (Hannaphy 6), Gartland, Grimes; McMahon, Tierney, A. Byrne, Clancy (Hyland 81); Bermingham (O'Connor 78), Freeman.

Ref: J McKell.