Stephen McDonnell praises Glenavon teenager after handing him captain's armband for Mid-Ulster Cup victory over Newry City

The 18-year-old has started in 10 of Glenavon’s 11 Premiership matches this season and took on added responsibility as the Lurgan Blues successfully navigated their way into the last-four thanks to goals from Jack Malone and Cohen Henderson.

Club captain Mark Haughey remains sidelined through injury with Danny Wallace largely taking over in his absence.

Baird has impressed new manager McDonnell, who says the young midfielder has led from the front with his performances.

"We're trying to share the responsibility amongst the group,” he told Glenavon Media. “Isaac has been fabulous since we came in and has put in top-level performances.

"We're trying to spread the load. Mark Haughey is the leader of the group and club captain.

"We've had conversations with Danny and sometimes the captaincy can add the weight of the world on people's performances.

"We've decided we're going to have a look at that and people who are more comfortable in that leadership role.

"Isaac is a young boy and still very quiet, but from his performance standpoint he delivers on the pitch.

"We felt it was an opportunity for him to lead the team and he did it very well.”

Another young star that shined was Henderson with the 17-year-old named man of the match for his performance at Mourneview Park.

McDonnell has a track record for developing youth talent having previously worked as academy manager at Dundalk and also led Shelbourne’s U19 side before arriving in Lurgan.

"Cohen is only 17 and a great lad,” he added. “He has natural ability as a wide player where he can go inside and outside.

"We're just trying to develop him in terms of the game and different trigger moments within it.

"He's a young boy but he's got huge potential.

"He featured last week, at the weekend and again tonight, so he has been involved in three of the four games, which for a 17-year-old is fantastic.

"It highlights the academy and if they are good enough they are going to play here under us.

"We have a track record for developing young players and we want to continue that."

Tuesday night’s victory marked a second cup triumph for McDonnell since taking over from Gary Hamilton and he feels things are starting to take shape.

"That's our fourth game with two training sessions,” he said. “We're looking forward to having a full week of training with a Tuesday and Thursday where we can strip it all back and start to go into even more detail.

"I can't complain. We've overloaded the guys with enough scenarios in the two training sessions that they've been able to transition quickly.

"Even in the games we've asked them to carry out certain aspects in our play that we wanted to see. We've tried to move it on.

"Our job as a staff is to assess the players and give them the best tools to carry out the best decisions on the pitch.

"All we're going to be doing is holding them accountable to decisions.

"They've all bought in and we have some key players to come back in.

"We want to improve the results but it's the process we're following and I think you can slowly start to see the way we want to go about things."