MAL CONTENT WITH TROOPS

MALACHY O’ROURKE was delighted with his support cast as Monaghan turned on the afterburners in Clones on Saturday night. They were level six times with Fermanagh in a competitive first half but they hit their straps after the break, reeling off 10 points in a row and had a total of 13 different players on the scoresheet. The subs hit 0-5 between them and O’rourke said: “Owen Duffy (0-3) came in and really made a mark. There is great competition for places but he was probably unlucky not to start. “That’s what you want from your subs, to make an impact, and he certainly did that. The fellas who started had first chance at it but the next day it opens up again and other fellas will stake a claim. “We knew that Fermanagh would be competitive and in fairness they’ve had a number missing through injury and so on, it was tough to keep it going. “We were just delighted to come out winners in the end.” Monaghan play Cavan next in a first round derby at Kingspan Breffni Park on June 11. O’rourke added: “We have to improve. We gave Fermanagh too much space, they were able to come up the field very easy and get inside and win frees. “In the second half we pushed up more and won a few turnovers but at times we weren’t clinical enough. “It’s going to be a real local derby against Cavan. There’s never much between the teams. We played them in Iniskeen in the league and it was seven points all.” The Erne fans were up in arms when ref Derek O’mahoney took no action against Conor Mcmanus for an alleged stamp on Ryan Mccluskey. But TV replays appeared to exonerate Mcmanus and Fermanagh boss Pete Mcgrath labelled it “an irrelevance”. “Conor is not the kind of guy who would intentionally walk on someone. “The first half went as you hoped it would but they began to get a grip on the game. Their intensity, their superior physicality and their movement was starting to cause us problems. “Once they opened a four or five point gap everything was going their way and we simply couldn’t repel that. Maybe our lack of depth was another thing.”

IN THE MAC OF THE NET Conor Mcmanus hits goal as Erne keeper Thomas Treacy is beaten after his own poor kick-out