O’Carroll starts as Gilroy’s Dubs braced for battle

UNDEFEATED they may be, but Pat Gilroy is expecting Dublin to be put to the pin of the collars by Monaghan in Clones tomorrow.

Eamon McEneaney’s side have picked up just two points from their opening three games, hardly reflecting the quality football they have been producing.

And Gilroy expects their determination to right that apparent wrong, never mind the prospect of scalping Dublin, will make life difficult for the visitors.

“It’s a different type of fixture,” said Gilroy. “Monaghan have a lot more younger players coming into their squad and they seem to be playing at a really high tempo and showing a lot of hard work.

“I think Eamon McEneaney’s teams play decent football. I think the tempo could be up a step even from the last game we played so it’ll be a big challenge for us but we’ve prepared well and you’d hope we will continue our run.

“I think they’ve played very well so far. They were very unlucky against Cork not to get something out of that game. That was only a week after we had played Cork so I think it’ll be a tough match, especially up in Clones.”

Gilroy gives Ross O’Carroll his league debut in St Tiernach’s Park after another sterling club campaign by the Kilmacud Crokes defender.

“I think Ross has played very well throughout the club championship and he should have made his debut last February when he was picked to play against Kerry but got injured. He had a stop-start season last year but he’s a strong player who plays his man from the front. Hopefully he’ll bring that to us as well.”

After impressing against Kerry’s Kieran Donaghy last day out, 20-year-old Seán Murray starts again at full-back, where he will be flanked on his left by O’Carroll.

Although he baulked at the suggestion by a journalist he had the former Footballer of the Year “in his pocket”.

“I was happy with the game in stages. Sometimes he got the ball, but sometimes I got the ball ahead of him. I don’t think ‘pocket’ is the right word. He’s a fantastic player.”

Interestingly, Murray admitted he wasn’t a big fan of the Dublin team in his younger years.

“I grew up in a house without a TV,” revealed the Trinity College theoretical physics student. “So even though we played a lot of sport, we didn’t follow sport. Since I started playing you get near it but before that I wouldn’t have followed it.”