Donegal have been beaten comfortably by reigning Ulster Champions Monaghan this afternoon at Croke Park. 
The men from the Farney County ran out convincing winners on a scoreline of Monaghan 1-16 Donegal 1-10.
Monaghan led at the interval by three points after a commanding and controlled performance in the first half.
Conor McManus and Kieran Hughes were lively in the opening 35 minutes, and caused the Donegal defenders all sorts of problems.
Colm McFadden and Michael Murphy kept Donegal in touch with three points each and a great score from Patrick McBrearty was the sum total of Donegal’s efforts in the first period.
Rory Kavanagh was shown a straight red card early in the second-half.
His dismissal proved crucial, although Michael Murphy did convert a penalty shortly after Kavanagh’s red card to level the game at 0-11 to 1-08.
However almost immediately a great move from Monaghan was finished off by Kieran Hughes.
From that moment on, Monaghan never looked back and completely controlled the final exchanges running out six point winners in the end.
Colm McFadden was shown a black card late on in the game.
Donegal now need to dust themselves down ahead of next month’s crucial Ulster SFC clash with Derry in Celtic Park.