Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SIGNS AAR POSITIVE
Mulligan stars on Oriel debut
SOME familiar faces came off the bench to get Seamus Mcenaney’s second coming as Monaghan boss off to a winning start – but it was a teenager who lit up the day in Inniskeen.
Aaron Mulligan marked his senior county debut with 1-4 in a Dr Mckenna Cup season-opener to beat Derry, led by the first time by new manager Rory Gallagher (right).
Mulligan, a former Republic of Ireland youth international, scored the only goal of the game in the ninth minute with a low finish to the far corner and helped himself to four points, two from play, in the second half.
Both managers had reasons to be cheerful on day one of the new seasons with Emmett Bradley also impressing for the Oak Leafers.
Seamus Mcenaney (right) last managed Monaghan in 2010 and Conor Mccarthy got his second stint in charge off to a flier with a fine point after 30 seconds.
The goal soon followed, a wellworked move against the wind stretching their lead to 1-3 to no score, with a threaded ball in to Gary Mohan finished by Mulligan.
Derry may have been slow to settle but soon found joy hitting Ryan Bell early and often – he had the beating of Colin Walshe and scored three first-half points from play.
Dessie Ward stopped a run of five Derry points in a row, after good work by the lively Micheal Bannigan – Monaghan’s first point in 17 minutes.
Derry had trailed by six but took a one-point lead into half time, Ciaran Mcfaul, Bradley and Bell all on target to put them 0-8 to 1-4 up.
Derry twice held a three-point lead in the early stages of the second half, Christopher Bradley, Ben Mccarron and sub Jack Doherty all raising white flags as the visitors outscored Monaghan by four points to two in that dominant spell.
Monaghan brought on experienced pair Kieran Hughes and Jack Mccarron to help turn things around.
With a strong wind at their backs, they were at either end of a brilliant counter-attack which also included Darren Hughes, Mccarron adding the finishing touches to one of the best moves of the game.
The new rules had little impact but there were two sin-binnings late on for Ciaran Mcfaul and Monaghan’s Dermot Malone. A strong finish by Monaghan left six in it at the end.