Derry Falter Against Kingdom

A disappointing performance and a disappointing result, but bar the loss of two league points, it's hard to see yesterday's defeat to Kerry causing too much damage to Derry.

And it had all started so well. Barely eight minutes had elapsed and Derry were holding a 0-4 to 0-0 lead. Kerry seemed to take a while to settle, but this good start was the result of Derry working hard in defence, and moving the ball quickly to the wings were Eoin Bradley was winning excellent possession. Himself, James Kielt and Eoin Brown hit early scores, while Gerard O'Kane arrived from half-back to give Derry an early cushion.

It was evident that Derry's gameplan centred initially on preventing the Kingdom from getting a good start. In their previous NFL games against Donegal and Tyrone, Kerry scored goals in the opening stages; helping to build up sizeable leads from which their opponents could not recover. Derry didn't make this mistake, but as the first half wore on the Kerry machine gradually clicked into gear.

Kerry's half-forward line soon pushed up on the Derry defence, forcing errors, and preventing the ball from moving quickly. Kerry also filtered men back at speed and in numbers, nullifying Derry's gameplan of trying to hit players in space. Derry's system faltered in this suffocating environment, allowing Kerry to eek out the scores that brought themselves level.

There was an air of despondency at half-time as Derry fans rued their team's inability to capitalise on an excellent start, and the mood wasn't helped by Eoin Bradley's yellow card just minutes before the break. The significance of this wasn't lost on Derry manager Damian Cassidy:

"His ball-winning capacity was a loss and we certainly missed out on that. We were a very different team as a result unfortunately"

The writing was certainly on the wall; and the ever-increasing failure of Derry's attack to link up effectively resulted in the introduction of Sean Leo McGoldrick and Paul Murphy at half-time. Murphy's ability to win breaking ball helped Derry's cause in the second-half, but Seamus Scanlon and substitue Anthony Maher were dominating the midfield exchanges. Derry were on the back-foot and had little answer, with the new inside forward line of Enda Muldoon and James Kielt failing to get into the game.

Derry have played with a new-look system so far in this league campaign. The emphasis has been on moving the ball quickly to the forwards, while a fluidity of movement between attack and defence has been exemplified by the industry of the wing forwards and wing backs. In the second half at Bellaghy, Kerry's movement, organisation and overall quality rendered this system non-existant. Derry's play was devoid of ideas, riddled with errors and they were laboured in possession - at times reverting back to the age-old problem of failing to move the ball out of defence. The Derry boss lamented his side's difficulties in this area:

"We're working on playing in a particular way and at the start of the game it worked quite well for us. But when the pressure came on - and I was acutely aware that was going to be a test - it was disappointing that we didn't manage to get back into the method of play that we're trying to develop. I'm not sure that pace was the main problem, the way we were building up to the full-forward line was more of a problem."

Resorting to kicking long balls into the forward line, it was clear that any Derry gameplan or method had been discarded. Meanwhile, at the other end, Colm Cooper was punishing Derry with six points of his own, but his side failed to open up a five or six point winning margin their dominance probably deserved.

Derry were well beaten, but positives can be taken from a performance in the absence of players such as Paddy Bradley, Mark Lynch and Niall McCusker against a near full-strength Kerry outfit. The defence played well as a unit with Sean Lockhart marshalling Cooper; and the central threat of Donaghy and Declan O'Sullivan largely minimised. In the closing stages Derry also battled hard to reduce the gap between the sides, when it looked like Kerry might have won by more. That the Oakleafers managed to stay in touch was mainly down to the unerring accuracy from place balls displayed by James Kielt. His two sideline kicks were the highlights of Derry's second half.

Cassidy described the game afterwards as "a good learning curve" and it's hard to argue. His team are still a work in progress, and this was an ideal test in early March. After the procession against Westmeath, Kerry have served up a reminder of what it's like to play against the best teams in the country. Derry will learn from this defeat, and they have an early chance to recover, with the game against Dublin just six short days away.

DERRY: B Gillis; K McGuckin, K McCloy, SM Lockhart; P Cartin (0-1), B McGoldrick, G O'Kane (0-1); F Doherty (0-1), J Diver; E Lynn, P Young, B Mullan; E Brown (0-1), E Bradley (0-1), J Kielt (0-5, two frees, two lineballs). Subs : E Muldoon for Bradley (yellow card, 31 mins), P Murphy for Young (half-time), SL McGoldrick for Mullan (half-time), C McKaigue for McGuckin (51 mins)