Derry boss reflects on famous win over Dubs

DERRY manager Rory Gallagher has challenged his players to be more like Dublin after guiding the Oak Leaf county to a memorable win over the Metropolitans on Saturday evening.
Over 12,000 people crammed into Celtic Park for the top of the table clash in Division Two and they weren’t disappointed with the fare on offer as Brendan Rogers won the game for the hosts with the last kick of the game.
The victory sparked scenes of wild celebrations among home supporters but the wily Gallagher knows that there’s still a long way to go in this season.
“Dublin are measured, they’ve been through every facet of the game, winning, losing, coming from behind, not playing well - we have to be like that,” admitted the Fermanagh man when the excitement finally died down.
“We turned it round from being a team that was exceptionally poor to a team that was very good. Today is not a defining moment, but it’s a nice day.
“This is why you play sport. We are very fortunate and I just love it and I’d imagine all the players love it, the County Board, the fans and I'm just delighted to be part of a group like that. That's why you play at this level, because you want days like this.”
As for the game itself, Derry overcame a below-par first half performance to take the game to their opponents after the break.
“Look, it's a wild thing to say but you can live with losing once you're on the end of a battle like that, with the way Dublin were, but I suppose the disappointing thing was in the first half we didn't play.
“I think we just didn't rise to the occasion and played within ourselves. We were far too stand-offish of Dublin, far too cautious with the ball. You have to throw caution to the wind, you're mixing it with one of the greatest teams that has ever played, albeit that they have a few new players, but we had to get stuck into them.
“It’s very old school but you have to work hard, you have to show the desire. With that then you can implement your tactics with and without the ball.
“The goal was huge but, yeah, we turned them over and we weren’t turning them over in the first half. I thought once we got to grips with Dublin – I’m not saying it was easy, it was far from that – we weren’t being picked apart the way we were.
“We were starting to do better on both sets of kick-outs and momentum can change,” he added.
Brendan Rogers - ‘an incredible fella’ according to his manager - grabbed the plaudits with that dramatic late score but it’s fair to say the boss believes it was a team effort that got his charges over the line.
“I’m delighted to move Brendan to midfield, whether Eoin McEvoy appeared on the scene or not, we were moving him to the middle of the field. He’s just a phenomenal player and a phenomenal person,” continued Gallagher.
“We were 7-2 down at half-time and by a long stretch the second best team on the pitch because we were standing off them, we weren’t playing with enough hunger, weren’t playing with enough intensity with the ball. Dublin are more measured on occasions like this. Look it wasn’t Championship, but it’s very close to it.”
The win means the Oak Leafs need just one point from their remaining two games against Clare and Cork to earn promotion to the top flight.
“After we beat Kildare, we needed three points out of six – do I care how it comes? No. We know now we need one, and we know now we need to go and deliver against Clare in our next game.
“We were passive against Galway last year, in both League and Championship, when it came to it. We’ve got to experience playing against bigger teams, that’s the bottom line. We’ve had everything our own way, we’ve played 18 or 19 League games since we came back from Covid and lost one – we’ve won them all pulling up, bar Galway, Roscommon and Dublin.”
That’s for another day: for now, it’s all about savouring the moment of a famous victory on one of the county’s biggest days in recent imes.
“Owenbeg is great, but we’d love to be playing every game here (Celtic Park) with 10,000 or 12,000. We played Leitrim here on a very, very dark day in 2020 when I questioned life.
“This is the arena you want, there’s no doubt about that.”