By Shaun Casey

Had Monaghan struck the net even once on Saturday evening at Croke Park, they could well have secured their first win of the Division One league campaign, says manager Gabriel Bannigan.

A series of neat saves from Dublin keeper Hugh O’Sullivan in the first half, along with two near-misses by Micheál Bannigan in the second, were the closet opportunities that Monaghan had to raise a green flag.

Dublin hit the net themselves in the second period through substitute Joe Quigley and that, along with 0-8 from star man Con O’Callaghan, ultimately handed Ger Brennan’s men the win on the night.

“There’s no point in saying that we were the better team and should have won the game, we were the better team for an hour I thought but we didn’t win the game because, the most important thing in football is taking your chances,” Bannigan said.

“We just didn’t do that and we didn’t finish enough of them and that’s why we didn’t win the game. The positives side, we created a lot of goal chances but we missed them all, we didn’t take even one of them.

“If we had of taken one of them, particularly in that second half when we were dominant, I think the whole momentum was with us and it might have been a different outcome but that’s sport.”

There have been positives to take during the campaign so far, although Monaghan sit on zero-points after three outings. They showed a real fighting spirit on Saturday and plenty of fresh faces are seeing game time.

“There were a hell of a lot of positives. It was a really, gutsy, spirited performance all over the field and we had two lads making their league debuts in Cameron Dowd and Oisin O’Gorman and I thought they were excellent.

“We had another lad who came off the bench for his debut, Fionan Carolan. That substitute was forced because of Ryan McAnespie’s injury but he came on and players as well as Ryan was playing so great credit to those young lads.

“Liam McDonald came off the bench, Eddie Walsh came off the bench and those fellas are all in their first season. We have handed seven league debuts in three games and another four lads that have come off the bench that had never played league football for Monaghan before.

“That’s through necessity, we’re just ravaged with injuries but I couldn’t be prouder of the way the boys were working and what they’re putting in at training and they came to Croker and put in a really spirited performance.”