By Shaun Casey

SCOTSTOWN picked up their first win of the season when they overcame Truagh last weekend in a repeat of the 2021 county final.

Colin McAree, manager of the Monaghan kingpins, has been pleased with how his side have started, despite losing the first two games.

“We probably played well in the previous two games and didn’t win them, so I think the boys put in a good performance. We tried a few things at the weekend, and it seemed to work.

“We’re happy, we’re seeing progress in the previous two games, so we put a lot of what we learned in our first two games into the third game.

“We were really happy with how the boys performed and it was just nice to get our first two points of the season and get started.

“From our perspective, the boys have trained well and it’s about trying to get what you’ve practised into a game and then I suppose the next challenge is to go on and win your next couple of games or at least try your best to see improvement in the team.”

Minus the quality of county stars Rory Beggan, Shane Carey, Conor McCarthy along with Darren and Kieran Hughes, McAree sees it as a chance for others to step up,

“We feel like it was a great opportunity for the rest of the lads to get up to speed before the county boys come back and see what we can get out of them, what we can learn, how we can improve so when the county men come back, they’ll compliment what we’re already doing.

“We’ve only one win out of three, but I think the boys have acquitted themselves really well and we’re happy with where we’re at.

“We have three or four injuries to what we describe as our starting 15 and then you’ve your county boys, so we’ve been missing quite a few fellas for the first three games but we’re not crying about that.

“It’s an opportunity for other lads and the younger lads to come in and stake a claim for the team and to learn because a lot of it at this stage is about learning and a lot of boys are getting football.

“Our team at the minute is essentially, there’s a good 10 or 12 lads who are also playing reserve football so they’re getting loads and loads of football, I think it’s 12 games in 14 weeks.

“So, it’s trying to manage that load at the minute. It’s too early in the season to predict, you never know what could happen, there could be defections, suspensions, injuries, so it’s really just taking one week at a time.”

It’s Inniskeen up next and a chance for Scotstown to extend their winning streak.

“They’re probably like ourselves, they have five or six county players and I’d say they’re mad keen to get them boys back, as are we to get our own back.

“It’s another opportunity for our lads to go up there on a big pitch and see if can we dig out a performance and hopefully that’s good enough.”