Malachy O’Rourke frustrated as Monaghan pay for mistakes

Malachy O’Rourke couldn’t help but feel a little short-changed after an exciting afternoon in Clones.

His Monaghan side contributed strongly to a terrific encounter and with Conor McManus in his corner, there was always a strong chance of him winning the man of the match glassware.

But that was all the hosts came away with in front of a vocal home support, as they were ultimately pipped to the big prize, the two points.

“I thought we did enough to take something from the match,” said O’Rourke. “For a long time, in the first half in particular, I thought we were playing well but it was our own mistakes that were our undoing, really, and that’s always disappointing.

“Again, in the first half, we had a lot of shots from play but we only converted a few of them. Those things all combined and when the other team gets a purple patch, it leaves you with an uphill struggle, which was what left us four or five down.

“There were a lot of positives, some good performances. I thought our defence was outstanding but overall Mayo have some serious physical power there and we are missing a few of our more physical players at the minute. We could still have got something from the game, though, so it’s disappointing, in that regard.”

Monaghan were without experienced campaigners like Dick Clerkin, Paul Finlay, Kieran Hughes, and Vinny Corey for various reasons, so it wasn’t the end of the world.

They need to watch out for relegation creeping up behind them all the same, after back-to-back defeats, albeit narrow losses.

“Well, it’s the exact same position we were in this time last year, when we had four points after four games,” said O’Rourke. “There is no difference really so we’ll try and finish strong now if we can. We’re under no illusions we’re in for a tight one in Cork, but we’re up for that challenge.”