Monaghan manager Seamus McEnaney has brought the guillotine down on experimentation in ruthless fashion when naming his strongest team in the McKenna Cup so far for the county's final group game against Antrim in Ballybay on Sunday at 2.00pm. In keeping with his comments after the county's defeat by Cavan the axe has fallen on a number of fringe players for a game that the manager sees as crucial in his preparations for the county's league opener against Roscommon. Despite some improved performances against Cavan only one of the players who were tried in their two games so far, goal keeper, Padraig McBennett, has been named for Sunday and he was reserve keeper last year. In naming the team he has for Sunday's game Seamus McEnaney is making a strong statement that he is approaching the game against Antrim in a totally different frame of mind as the time for experimentation is over and he is fielding a team that looks more akin to the side he will hope to have on duty on Sunday February 3rd. "We will still be without the seven players who are on college duty for Sunday's match and all those players played championship football for Monaghan last year but the team we have named is getting down to the more serious business. The league is our focus now but then the league has been our focus since we were defeated by Kerry in the All Ireland qualifiers back in August. The Dr McKenna Cup was a chance for us to assess a number of players in a competitive situation and having seen what we have over the past two Sundays we had to sit down now and have a look at the panel that we will be working with for the National League." This is a relatively strong Monaghan team but the fact that Monaghan have those seven college players to come back and given the performances of the likes of Daniel McNally and Neil McAdam along with the return of such as Raymond Ronaghan and Anthony Rooney the panel for 2008 has an even stronger look about it than last year. Paul McGuigan is just one of those players and his performances for UUJ have been getting rave reviews. The team for Sunday sees Damien Freeman, Eoin Lennon and Paul Finlay getting their first starts, Finlay lining out on his home pitch, but he does leave the position of right corner vacant for the time being. Dessie Mone reverts to his more familiar role of defender and Gary McQuaid starts at centre back to give thjis Monaghan team a much more familiar look. Being staged in Pearse Park is a recognition that the famed mid Monaghan venue is coming back onto the inter county scene and the match should still attract a good attendance. "I hope we get a good crowd" Seamus McEnaney said when releasing the team for Sunday's game "as this is our last competitive match before we play Roscommon in Clones in the league on the first Sunday in February and it would be a real boost to the boys to see a good turn out. This year again we will be taking things one game at a time and as last year our support is very important to us. Its also the first time that the county has played in Ballybay for quite a few years and its a ground where Monaghan had a great reputation as being hard to beat so we should see a good crowd on Sunday". Monaghan: Padraig McBennett, Dessie Mone, Colm Flanagan, Dermot McArdle, Damien Freeman, Gary McQuaid, John Paul Mone, Eoin Lennon, Paul Finlay, Owen Duffy, Rory Woods, Conor McManus, AN Other, Vincent Corey, Tomas Freeman. Tweet

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