Derry Cruise Into Final

When the half-time whistle blew on Sunday at Glen, the writing was on the wall for Donegal. They trailed Derry by 0-6 to 0-5 at this point, despite the Oakleafers' failure to get out of second gear throughout the duration of the period.

By full-time, the four-point margin of victory was probably a fair one. And it signalled Derry's qualification for a second consecutive League Final, whilst consigning Donegal to Division 2. Victory for Derry was achieved with minimal fuss. They stepped things up a bit in the second period and secured the win thanks to an ability to play a more direct game, and produce scores whenever the chances came their way. Two points in the early part of the second period from James Kielt, and a point apiece from half-backs Brian Óg McAlary and Sean Leo McGoldrick, demonstrated Derry's more clinical attacking ability, and these scores seemed to do enough to keep the surprisingly weak Donegal challenge at bay.

Surprising because the Tír Chonail men usually provide Derry with a hard-fought derby contest, and also because of the (Division 1 retaining) prize on offer for John Joe Doherty's side.

Meanwhile, down in Tralee, Kerry were busy dismantling Galway's NFL challenge. The Kingdom's seven-point victory ensuring that Derry would qualify for the NFL Final ahead of the Tribesmen.

It had been the perfect Easter Sunday for Derry. And yet it seemed like something of an anti-climax. The Oakleaf faithful filed out of Watty Graham Park with little fanfare. Any latent joy at reaching the Final was supressed, if it existed at all. Perhaps the pointed feelings of Derry boss Damian Cassidy have filtered through to the Derry following. We want to be a successful championship team; the NFL is a secondary concern.

Or perhaps the Derry fans were subdued after watching a low-key game of football. The fare at Glen had been poor, very poor in places. Damian Cassidy will be happy his experimental side emerged with victory, in a reaonably convincing fashion, but he won't have been particularly pleased with his side's performance. A duel with Kerry in a fortnight's time has suddenly entered 'beneficial' territory. In February the prospect of a League Final might have seemed like a unnecessary April distraction, but the Derry management will now use it to iron out some positional issues, before the Monaghan game in May.

One positional question that had a possible answer attached to it on Sunday was that of the third member of the full-forward line. Coming back from a six-month layoff, Mark Lynch scored three excellent points. He looked lively and fresh, and looks increasingly likely to start against Monaghan in May alongside Paddy Bradley, and the continually impressive Eoin Bradley. Damian Cassidy was keen to praise the returning Banagher man:

"You could see early in the game that he was really fresh. Mark needed that break. He has been playing football and hurling for all sorts of teams since he was 16. It was the best thing that has happened to the lad, you could see the hunger in his game."

Lynch's two first-half points from play were the highlights of a pedestrian opening period. Derry struggled to move the ball at pace, and failed to pressurise Donegal in coming out of defence. There were few tackles, and little intensity. Brian Roper capitalised on the early space he was afforded by kicking two points, but this was about as much as Donegal could muster.

John Joe Doherty's side were every bit as listless in the second half as Derry opened up a five point cushion that provided the platform for victory. Damian Cassidy can't have been too happy with his charges at the interval, but he was pleased with a more assured second-half performance from his side:

“The most pleasing aspect of the game was our performance in the second half. We had to step it up because the first half wasn’t as competitive as you’d want it to be. I thought we responded well. We’d a number of established players that weren’t there and we coped admirably without them."

Those established players were, most notably, Fergal Doherty, Paddy Bradley and Niall McCusker. It is great testament to Derry's NFL approach this season, that Oakleaf fans were expecting their side to beat Donegal despite the absence of these men. This would have been unimaginable in the past few seasons, but Derry have qualified for another League Final by starting with experimental lineups featuring a host of new faces.

The well-broadcasted aim of the Derry management at the start of the year was to deepen squad strength ahead of the Championship, and it is fair to say this objective has been achieved. Derry strolled to victory against Donegal without Bradley, Doherty and McCusker (and without starting Sean Martin Lockhart, Paul Cartin and Paul Murphy), and by making eight changes to the side that started the previous game against Tyrone. Cassidy reiterates the point:

"The league to me was about developing our senior panel, about being able to interchange players so we knew that if we met any difficulties during the year we'd be able to deal with that."

Yet improvements will need to be made in the aftermath of this performance. The NFL Final provides a chance to add more silverware to the trophy cabinet, but it will also result in letting us know how far this new-look Derry side have really progressed so far this season.

DERRY: B Gillis; J Keenan, K McGuckin, G O'Kane; B Og McAlary (0-1), B McGoldrick (0-1), S L McGoldrick (0-1); P Bradley, E Muldoon (0-1); E Lynn (0-1), B Mullan, J Kielt (0-3); S Bradley (0-1), E Bradley (0-2), M Lynch (0-3). Subs: S M Lockhart for Keenan (47), P Cartin for McAlary (60), C McKaigue for Lynn (63), J Diver for Muldoon (71)