Gabriel Bannigan is refusing to use Monaghan’s long list of absentees as an excuse for their heavy Allianz Football League opener round defeat to Armagh.

The retirements of Conor McManus, Darren Hughes, Kieran Duffy and Karl O’Connell since last season have been compounded by injuries and the unavailability of most of the Scotstown contingent following their extended club campaign.

"It's well documented the amount of men we are missing from last year, but we have to talk about who we have and it's a steep learning curve," the Farney boss told BBC NI.

"On the positive side, I thought some of the newer players showed quite well. We had four debutants from the start and three more from the bench - a lot of lads in one go. We had to do that because at the moment we have to go with what we have.

"When it rains, it pours. We were already missing players and lost five more over the last week but that's not an excuse.

"We had a good enough team on the pitch in that first half and have to play a lot better than what we did, so we have to look in the mirror, take a lot of learnings and move on."

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