Mickey Harte believes the start of his Derry managerial career in the McKenna Cup will be challenging due to injuries.
Harte’s Derry travel to Kingspan Breffni on Wednesday night (January 3), facing Cavan in the opening round of the Dr. McKenna cup.
Derry will be without a clutch of regulars; as Glen face an All-Ireland club semi-final against Kilmacud Crokes on January seven.
While goalkeeper Odhran Lynch is out, with Harte admitting Lynch may miss the start of the Allianz League.
“As long as unavailability and injuries aren’t hampering your chances of giving the best of yourself that (being thrown in at the deep end) is good,” Harte told the Irish News.
“But it’s still challenging. There will be room for other players to be seen and that’s what’s great about the McKenna Cup as well. It’s great to have the opportunity to get those players into a competitive game where you hope you have the spine of the team available to you and they can be the add-on to the core of the team”.
“That’s the way I’ve always used the McKenna Cup. As long as you’ve five or six or your key men available it makes good sense that you can add new, or younger, or inexperienced players to that and they get some value out of it.”
Cavan versus Derry in the Dr. McKenna Cup is live on Northern Sound this Wednesday January third from 7:30pm.
