Malachy O'Rourke felt Monaghan used their experience to good effect in their narrow Ulster SFC quarter-final victory over Cavan.

"Between Monaghan and Cavan there is a serious rivalry and there was an awful lot talked about it and so on. There is an awful fear of losing there, in a way, and sometimes that can inhibit you as well," the Fermanagh man said.

"To find ourselves four points down midway through that half wasn't a great position, but we showed our experience and that character to fight our way back into it. I thought we started to use the ball a lot better and got Conor McManus on the ball a wee bit more and overall we ran out deserving winners at the end of it."

Not for the first time, Conor McManus was the Farney's star man and O'Rourke acknowledged that he among the best forwards - if not the best - in the game at present.

"He's not far away from it, anyway," he opined.

"Again, we knew that Conor was going to be double-teamed and so on. A lot of the time, if you are kicking high ball or 50-50 ball in, it's very easy to knock it away from him. Whereas I thought, in the second half, we were popping the ball in front of him.

"He was able to win it easier and then take his man on. The last score he got was top class. We expect that off him, but we are trying to take the load off him, that he is not winning every match for us. There will be days he will be under pressure but there's no doubt, it's great to have him up there."

 

Tweet

Most Read Stories