Ciaran Hanratty fires in the first of his two goals for Monaghan

It was a nip and tuck tussle all the way until Castleblayney's Hanratty turned to fire in his second goal with 65 minutes played.

Down had scored the first goal after nine minutes through Packie Downey but Hanratty responded for Monaghan.

Monaghan were twice two points down in the second half but came out on top.

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It was Seamus McEneaney's first win in the Ulster Championship in his third term as Monaghan manager.

Thomas Freeman was top points scorer for the winners with seven while James McGovern and Aidan Carr landed four each for Down.

"Both teams really went for it and it was an exciting game," said double-scorer Hanratty.

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"The intensity was phenomenal and we are just delighted to come out of it with the win."

Down manager Ross Carr admitted they had little time to respond to Hanraaty's second strike.

"That was the key score. We seem to be prone to the sucker punch," he said.

"We got ourselves into a two-point lead but could not push on from that. It is hard to know what happened in those last 10 minutes."

Monaghan: S Duffy; C Flanagan, V Corey, D Mone ; D Freeman, G McQuaid, D Morgan; E Lennon, B McKenna ; D Clerkin, P Finlay, S Gollogly; C Hanratty, S Smith, T Freeman.
Subs: JP Mone for D Mone (half-time), R Woods for Smith (45), C McManus for Clerkin (49), D Mone for Gollogly, P Meegan for McKenna.

Down: M McVeigh; D Rooney, B Grant, M Cole; R Murtagh, K McGuigan, J Clarke; D Gordon, P Murphy; J McGovern, A Carr, R Sexton; D Hughes, P Downey , B Coulter.
Subs: M Walsh for Downey (45), P McComiskey for McGovern (49), S Kearney for Sexton (62).

Referee: M Deegan (Laois).