Stephen McDonnell confident impending return of senior stars can further aid development of talented youngsters
Glenavon manager Stephen McDonnell hopes the impending return of key senior players will only help further aid the development of his impressive young stars.
The Lurgan Blues head into Saturday’s home clash against Carrick Rangers on the back of last weekend’s stalemate with Cliftonville where the likes of David Toure, Len O’Sullivan and substitute Paul McGovern, who are all aged 21 or under, impressed.
McGovern arrived from Newry City this summer and despite being just 16, the Northern Ireland youth international has already made six Premiership appearances and was a constant threat in the final half-hour at Solitude.
He was one of four teenagers on the Lurgan Blues bench alongside Harry Lynch, Ben Wilson and Chris Atherton, who is reportedly set for a move to Premier League giants Chelsea, while 20-year-old Jamie Doran was also introduced.
McDonnell will hope to welcome back veteran striker Davy McDaid, club captain Mark Haughey and Calum Birney in the near future, with the trio combining for hundreds of Irish League appearances throughout their respective careers.
Haughey hasn’t played since mid-August while Birney, who hasn’t made a senior outing yet this term, further stepped up his return from injury by playing an hour in Wednesday’s reserve fixture against Coleraine.
"Barney (McKeown) came off at half-time with a hamstring injury (against Ballymena United) and the Cliftonville game came too soon so we'll reassess and hopefully we have him back as an option for Saturday,” said McDonnell. “We were good against Cliftonville and kept a clean sheet without Barney McKeown and had full faith we would.
"It's nice to have these good players. Davy McDaid missed Saturday with a calf injury so we'll hopefully have him back in the mix, hopefully have Mark Haughey back on the pitch in training and he's making his way back slowly.
"Calum Birney is playing minutes with our U20s and training once a week to try and manage his load - he's on his way back. We're getting a number of key senior players back into the group which will be important because we've a lot of young players.
"Right now they're stepping up and making a really good fist of it. Sometimes you do need experience and they're doing it without the experience at the moment, so we're really happy."