Down’s Caolan Mooney is one of three Rostrevor players who will be unavailable this summer

ROSTREVOR manager Shane Mulholland has confirmed that the club will be losing three key players for the summer months.

Caolan Mooney, Conor Doyle and Jordan Fegan will be heading to America and will miss out on the promotion push as the Petit Park men try and chase a return to Division One.

“That’s a county senior and two u-21s,” said Mulholland. “It’s three forwards too so it hits us in terms of firepower.

“There’s a raft of young players champing at the bit so you just have to adapt.

“Every club in Ireland is going to be hit by that sort of thing, so you just have to accept it.”

The players are not away yet, so will be available for the side’s crucial top of the table clash in An Riocht tomorrow night.

Rostrevor enter the match top of the table thanks to a blistering start to the season, and Mulholland said that the winning form was necessary as he attempts to make big changes at the club.

“Eight games in and we have won six, drawn one and lost one,” he said.

“We got a really good touch from Loughinisland, they were really, really good the night they played us.

“That was the third game and maybe it came at the right time and gave us a kick in the ass.

“Our reaction has been good since that game.

“Rostrevor are a club that are in Division Two but really should be in Division One, that’s where their pedigree really is.

“There’s quality here, seven minor Championships in the last 13 years meant that they were doing something right at underage.

“They have been up and down over a three- or four-year period, so there has been a wee bit of instability.

“The biggest issue is getting the lads to accept that they are in Division Two for a reason, and that was because they haven’t won enough matches to be in Division One.

“It seems from talking to some of them that mentally they thought they were a wee bit better than they were.

“There’s no doubting that the talent is there, it’s just the mentality and commitment and effort and work-rate.”

Mulholland said that the opinion people have of Rostrevor needs to change, and that a more solid defensive structure is one of the key goals in the short-term future.

“People have said to me that they don’t mind playing against Rostrevor, that they let you play.

“I want to change that, I’m trying to make us a wee bit harder to break down.

“If we concede a point I want people to be annoyed about that whereas before it was you’ll score a point and then we’ll try and score a point.”

n.mccoy@gaeliclife.com