Derry hurlers aim to bounce back against Roscommon in Lavey

The Oak Leafers are unbeaten and sit two points clear of second placed Donegal in the Division 2B table, but have already qualified for the March 30/31st league final by virtue of their head to head record against the Tir Chonaill men.

It's a scenario which may see some rotation within McGarvey's panel this weekend but having seen their 100 per cent record disappear against bottom of the table Wicklow last week, McGarvey is adamant this is a game in which Derry need to bounce back in.

"We want to get back to winning ways asap," admitted the Derry manager, "We just didn't play well enough (against Wicklow). I keep talking about consistency and that's what we are looking for. You have to be at it every day you go out. Now, don't get me wrong, we had loads of chances to pull away and get the job done in Wicklow but we didn't do it.

"We didn't score heavily enough which we sort of pride ourselves on - getting up to in and around the 20-25 mark - and we were nowhere near it. We just weren't at it. It's very hard to know what to put it down to but, look, it's maybe the wee kick in the ass we needed to tell us; 'Don't be getting ahead of yourselves here, there's still a lot of work to do'."

Sean Kelly's return was one of the positives to take from last week's draw in Aughrim and McGarvey says Kelly, among others, will get more game-time against the Rossies as he prepares his panel for a gruelling Christy Ring Cup campaign which begins on April 13th.

"Sean Kelly made his comeback last week, he hadn't played a match since last year's county final so he played 15 minutes," explained McGarvey, "He needs a game and we have other lads too. Look, we want to beat Roscommon, we want to win the match and we want to put in another good performance but there are a few lads who need game-time and all those things come into consideration.

"At the end of the day, you're still preparing to play the league final so you don't want to change too much but you want to make sure you have the balance. Yes, you want to go and win the game but you are preparing for the league final and a Christy Ring campaign where we will need 24 or 25 players.

"The Christy Ring is three weeks in a row and that's where the panel comes into it. We have Wicklow, Tyrone and then Kildare so there's no way we will have the same team out over the course of those games.

"That's why we have been trying to extend our panel out and get game-time for boys and, look, it has gone fairly well. We have a panel of 30 and I think 25 of them have played in the league, maybe 26. For the Wicklow match we had six changes from the team that had played the week before so maybe that unsettled us a bit as well."

On the draw, McGarvey said it could prove a blessing in disguise with Derry also due to start their championship campaign in Aughrim.

"If we were sitting comfortably through and the league final played and we were going down to Wicklow and getting caught in the first round of the Christy Ring then it would be a bigger concern so, look, I wouldn't say it was the worse thing to happen.”