MONAGHAN manager Malachy O'Rourke has praised the performances of his newer players, despite their two defeats in the McKenna Cup so far.
Doohamlet's Barry McGinn has caught the eye most of all, scoring 1-3 against Ulster University and 1-4 against Armagh, but O'Rourke was also impressed by others:
"Barry is coming in, he's doing well and he's got a fair bit of time. Other lads have come in - first half in particular [against Armagh] Fergal McGeough did very well, Daniel McKenna in there as well, they worked hard. Fergal did very well for the second goal, won the ball well and set up Owen Duffy."
"The two lads at the back, Donal Courtney and Niall McKeown, both of them came in and acquitted themselves well.
"Even around the middle of the field, I thought we worked well there a lot of the time. Big Mark Thornton was in there for his first full game and did well, battled well in the air and so on."
Experienced player Dessie Mone also name-checked Thornton, with a place in midfield up for grabs after the retirement of former captain Owen Lennon and with veteran Dick Clerkin not set return until perhaps the third round of the Division One League campaign.
"That just gives other boys the opportunity to prove themselves to Malachy. We can't always be relying on the same boys. That was a good thing that Mark [Thornton] came in from Rockcorry and I thought he had a great game. He didn't look out of place whatsoever: he was catching balls over his head, he was holding his own, which is great to see.
"Malachy needs to see that with new players, see can they stand up to this level of football. Lucky enough the new lads have so far."
Although Monaghan only scored two points in the final half hour of play against Armagh, eventually losing by 0-16 to 2-9, O'Rourke was happy with much of what he saw from his under-strength side, saying:
"I thought the application by all the boys, they worked very hard. I thought some of the movement in the forward line was good, their endeavour was good. We created a lot of chances. We had a lot of goal chances.
"That's what we want and it is going to be hard to whittle down the panel at the end of the McKenna Cup and that's not a bad thing to have".
