Monaghan's injury problems continue to mount

Football

Colm Shalvey

Monaghan senior football manager Gabriel Bannigan rued the concession of three cheap goals as his team fell to a second defeat of the NFL in Roscommon on Sunday.

“We’re going to have to be more clinical and more ruthless," he said.

"We had some really good forward patterns, but we left scores behind us. The [goals] we conceded were from our own mistakes. I’m not going to disguise the fact that I’m really disappointed to be leaving the Hyde with no points. I think we had enough about us to do that, but our own mistakes cost us.

“I was happy enough [with the first half]. It was a better performance all over the pitch, but I was very disappointed with the goal we conceded in the first half. It was our own possession, we were coming out of defence, we gave the ball away. It was just a sloppy mistake and it cost us. We were still in a good enough position at half-time. We knew we were playing against a bit of a wind in the second half, but it wasn’t that strong.

“We can’t use that as an excuse. Roscommon started the second half well and from our own possession we gave a poor ball away, a cross-field pass, it was cut out and they got a breakaway goal. Shortly after that, they got another goal from a penalty. They got three goals, we got one. We got a second goal that was disallowed. I don’t know if it was in the square or not, I couldn’t tell from where I was. It was the mistakes that cost us.

“We’re still not firing on all cylinders from an attacking point of view. We scored 1-8 in the first half, but I think we could have got a bit more. On a positive side, we only conceded six points, plus that sloppy goal.

“We had four rookies in that defence, so I was very encouraged by that. Some of the newer boys are playing well, Daragh McElearney being an example. We did better around the middle of the field and we didn’t leave as many chances short, but it still wasn’t at the level that we need to get to. We have a lot more work to do.”

Returnees

Bannigan welcomed a couple of Monaghan’s Scotstown players back into the fold in the days before the trip to Roscommon, with Rory Beggan and Mícheál McCarville going straight into the match-day panel.

“Rory Beggan and Mícheál McCarville were back training on Wednesday night. We would have liked to have had more training behind them, but given the situation we’re in and the players we’re missing, we felt we needed to bring them into the panel, particularly when a couple more men got injured during the week. Bringing Rory in is less risk than with someone out the pitch. The plan was to bring Mícheál McCarville on for Louis Kelly. It was good to get Mícheál back out there and hopefully we’ll get him back up to speed over the next couple of weeks.”

Bannigan has been left frustrated by a “catalogue of injuries” hampering his options, with Louis Kelly and Ryan O’Toole limping off during Sunday’s game.

He said: “Unfortunately, Louis Kelly seems to have done his hamstring. We had intended to take him off ten minutes into the second half because we were targeting 45 minutes for him and Ryan McAnespie.

“Ryan O’Toole went off at the end with a hamstring and Dylan Byrne went off with a hamstring during the week in a college game. Ryan Duffy got injured at training as well, so that’s four injuries we’ve picked up this week. That’s on top of a catalogue of injuries, so it’s not going to get any easier.

“There’s half a dozen who are definitely gone for the whole league. There’s a few more who we will hopefully get back in over the next few weeks, the likes of Fionán Carolan and Shane Hanratty, but apart from that, we have to get on with what we have. We’ll have to get on with preparing for the Dubs in two weeks’ time.”