McAnespie frustrated by Monaghan's form

Ryan McAnespie says Monaghan are frustrated their performances are not reflecting the passion of their manager Gabriel Bannigan and the time and effort the squad are putting in.

Monaghan struggled this Spring without the likes of McAnespie, Conor McCarthy and Killian Lavelle.

They were relegated from Division 1 without winning a game, but McAnespie says that injuries or not the manner of some of their performances were disappointing.

Their losses were by 12 (Armagh), 6 (Roscommon), 4 (Dublin), 19 (Mayo), 14 (Kerry), 8 (Galway) and 5 (Donegal) as they finished the lowest scorers in the division, while conceding the most.

It’s been a difficult campaign to date, but McAnespie says it helps that they have a passionate Monaghan man in charge of the side as they look towards tomorrow’s Ulster quarter-final encounter with Cavan at Clones.

“He's a Monaghan man (Bannigan) and his nephew, Michéal is obviously the captain,” said McAnespie (30). “It definitely helps. His belief in the squad. His passion for the team. You can definitely sense it.

“The performance we put in probably doesn't reflect the time and effort - and the training - that the boys have been doing this last while. That's probably the most frustrating thing.

“The likes of Gabriel, the time they've been giving up and his passion for Monaghan as well. We’re probably not doing it any justice and that's probably the most frustrating thing over the league campaign. Hopefully we can get it right.

“He's a great man. He's a great man to talk to the players. He's a good way of going on with the squad as well. Hopefully we can be fit to turn it around.”

Emyvale club man McAnespie continued: “It (the League) definitely didn't go to plan. A lot of games were quite disappointing in performance.

“I know you can get beat in games but it's sort of the nature of some of the defeats that was probably the most disappointing bit. It's something we just have to work on. We had a couple of changes personnel wise.

“The League was definitely disappointing for us but the big thing we can take from it is that a lot of boys got game time and hopefully pushed the squad on. For the younger boys, to get that experience to early, it will definitely stand to them.

“Particularly in Division 1. You're playing the top teams day in and day out.”

McAnespie has lost count of the number of hamstring injuries he’d had at this stage.

The Monaghan Town secondary school teacher has had a difficult 18 months at a time when he had established himself as a real leader in the Farney ranks with Bannigan appointing him vice captain last year.

McAnespie’s loss has been huge with so many experienced campaigners stepping aside in the last two seasons, including stalwarts like Conor McManus, Darren Hughes and Kieran Duffy.

“I don’t know what number of hamstring injury this is now,” he continued.

“We haven't really put a date in terms of return. It's more so how I'm feeling. You only really know when you get back fully training what way it is. We'll have to take it from there.

“At the minute I'm just tipping over with the rehab and see how it goes. It's frustrating surely. You're back for a couple of weeks and then it just goes again. It's something that I've learned to get on with.

“I suppose you can't really moan about it either. You don't really have time to. It's frustrating especially when you get to the stage of the year, the championship and all that.

“It's the time of year you want to be playing football. Just knuckle down. Hopefully not too long.”

“If you look across the country, you have a lot of counties struggling in the same way.

“There's a lot of teams where five or six boys that started last year are all out injured.

“I think we're not probably the only team to suffer but again, our performances just haven't been as good as other teams.

“The likes of Galway are probably the same with injuries but they're still pushing on. We've just struggled in that sense of things.”