Tough squad decisions to be made admits Canavan
Editorial Department • Published 19 Jan 2012 13:00
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Peter Canavan is aware that tough decisions are going to have to be made when it comes to trimming his panel for the league and championship. The Tyrone man has been pleased with what he has seen so far from his squad during the McKenna Cup and with everybody keen to make their claim to a spot in the squad for the National League it leaves his task an even tougher one.
On Sunday Fermanagh produced a solid performance in overcoming Queen's and once again Canavan utilised his entire quotas of substitutes, all of whom came on and impressed.
With so many players putting their hand up for selection, Canavan knows that making the cut will not be easy.
"They are going to make our job very difficult," he commented. "We have a panel to select for the National League and we're glad to see everybody coming on and doing their bit, and that makes it very difficult for us, but we'll have to do that whenever it comes around."
There were also four players in the Queen's starting line up from Fermanagh who will hope to force their way into the management's thoughts. Goalkeeper Matthew Jackson, defenders Niall McGovern and Brian Cox as well as forward Ryan Jones all played the entire 70 minutes for the students, and while Canavan was more focussed on the performance of Fermanagh on Sunday, he will take an in-depth look at how the university players have performed during the competition.
"I was more concerned with our own players but I will get a tape of the match and be able to view their performances just solely concentrating on them. I will look at all the games they have played in the McKenna Cup. It's great that four players from the county can make a Queen's team that is virtually an inter-county team and to get playing against county players can only bring them on. Again, it's back to the point I made earlier, its going to make our job even more difficult," he said.
Seamus Quigley was again the star turn for Fermanagh on Sunday as he rattled up a personal tally of 1-08 for the second week in a row.
"I told him before the game that he is not going to score 1-08 every game so that's the start of him proving me wrong I hope," laughed the Fermanagh manager when asked about his full forward's contribution.
Canavan does though believes that Quigley's performances are due to the hard work that he has been putting in at training.
"Again he is a quality finisher but he is putting in great effort in training and generally when boys knuckle down and put in the hard work in training it often comes off on match days and that is certainly the case with Seamie at the minute," he added.
He is however looking for more players to chip in with scores.
"You can't expect any player to get 1-08 every day and you are going to have to get other players on the scoresheet but at least there are chances being created, that's an important thing, and I wouldn't discourage boys from having a shot."
On the game itself, Canavan felt that Fermanagh tired when faced with the extra man in the latter stages but he again had nothing but praise for the effort shown by the players.
"Queen's are a strong team, physically very imposing as well, so for that end of things I was very happy with how we coped. The extra man did begin to tell in the last ten or 15 minutes and a lot of our boys simply ran out of steam but we were expecting that given the fitness levels at the minute."
He added: "I was worried about our own performance more so than the result and again there was good effort and the commitment was excellent all round including from the men who came on so we can't fault them on effort."
This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 19 Jan 12
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