Improving McDonnell pick of Orchard crop

THE last time Steven McDonnell found Mike McCarthy perched on his shoulder in Croke Park, he had one of those afternoons that players slot into the folder marked "experience"; one of those days that, in terms of euphemisms, transforms a promising youngster into a mature footballer.

McDonnell couldn't find a yard of space in McCarthy's shadow, and the 21-year-old was pulled from the fray early in the second half of the drawn encounter.

Just a few weeks before, McDonnell was making a decent fist of being young footballer of the year. On a crisp Clones day, this unknown, slim slip of a lad proceeded to run amok on Gary Coleman, one of the most experienced campaigners around.