The job of finding the right man was given to an interviewing panel comprised of Doctor (don’t ask me of what, though I assume it didn’t come from the same place as Paisley’s) Eugene Young, Frankie Kearney and the inimitable Fergal McCusker.

Now that their task is completed, Fergal may keep out of big Brian McGilligan’s way for a day or two. Maybe the “Derry News” should send him to Australia till the dust settles? You never know, Sean Boylan might even pick him on the team.

On reflection though, this is unlikely since although Fergal fits some of the criteria, namely he’s quite big, he loves nothing better than a good dust up and he no longer plays county football, he doesn’t fit the fourth and most important one, i.e. he’s not from Dunboyne.

So, what will Damien Cassidy be like? If I have been asked the question once, I have been asked it a thousand times. The answer is that I really don’t know.

I have often said that at his peak he was easily the best club footballer in Derry and that was at a time when there were many outstanding footballers in the county. But excellence as a footballer isn’t a pre-requisite to management. Jason Ryan for example often shone the bench with his arse for the Waterford footballers, but took to management like a duck to water.

Jack O’Shea, on the other hand, was the most celebrated footballer of his era, yet nose-dived when he pulled on the fluorescent jacket. Foster and Allen were on the Hugo Duncan show yesterday (my only vice) and one of them said that someone was so unlucky if he had a duck it would have drowned! This would apply to Jacko’s management career.

I was there at the moment of its inception, a challenge against Mayo. It was Jacko’s first match in charge and the start was delayed. It was lashing the rain and we warmed up before being asked to go back into the dressing room. We assumed the referee hadn’t arrived, but after a few minutes, there was a knock on the door and a Mayo official said reverentially: “You can go out now lads, Jacko’s here.”

We did go out and proceeded to beat them left right and sideways. It was the first of many such reversals for the Kerry legend and in spite of his greatness as a footballer, he never got to grips with the conundrums of management. As the D’Unbelievables are wont to say: “The questions didn’t suit him.”

Reasonable CV

Damien has a reasonable CV but nothing more. A Club Championship win with Bellaghy doesn’t mean a whole pile in Derry, where Bellaghy have won well over 20 of them.

Paddy Heaney remains very impressed by the fact that in the course of their subsequent Ulster campaign, he – as Paddy puts it – masterminded their triumph over Crossmaglen and I agree that is a feather in any man’s cap. However, this overlooks the fact that St. Gall’s game-plan comprehensively trumped him in the final.

Tactically, Bellaghy’s young manager was simply outwitted that day, though I accept this was at an early juncture in his career.