Sorry, SGC, I do admire your enthusiasm and youthful exuberance when it comes to youth and academy players but sometimes I think OMG!! maybe it's just the deep cynicism that comes with age but I don't think one moment, even if it was against the bloosers, is reason enough to hold on to a player. If we are still in this league next season, which looks likely, there are still another 44 games to play.
If we are now justifying holding on to players based on their performances against those lot then I don't hold much hope for us getting out of this league any time soon (look at the Grabby thread after he scored in the 1-0 at the end of 16/17 season IIRC) we are only a few steps away from being like the unwashed down the road i.e. basing our seasons' successes on the results against 'them'.
We shouldn't even be in the same league for McGrath's sake, and I'm not expressing that in an 'entitled' way either, this is just borne out of frustration of our current predicament which has derived from how badly we have been run for so long.
Anyway back on topic - injuries have certainly affected him, and hampered him achieving anywhere near the potential people saw in him when he was in the youth set up, but the club needs to be pragmatic in it's approach and emotions need to be removed when making any decisions relating to contract renewals/extensions.