Derry hurlers face Christy Ring crunch tie in Kildare

Derry currently sit level on points with the Lilywhites and London at the top of the qualifying group - all three counties having won their opening two games - with the 'Exiles' next up in Owenbeg on May 11 following Sunday's (1pm) test against the championship favourites. With two from those three likely to be in the Croke Park decider on June 1st, McGarvey knows his team are entering a critical period.

"I always felt this was the way it was going to be," explained the Lavey native, "I always thought we would have too much for Wicklow and Tyrone; it was always going to come down to the Kildare and London matches and that's the way it has panned out.

"We know a fair bit about them. We have kept an eye on them in the background throughout the season. We have looked at them, seen league games they've played and watched their Wicklow match at the weekend so we know plenty but whether or not that's any good to us remains to be seen."

This weekend's meeting will be the first meeting between the counties since Kildare defeated Derry 2-23 to 0-19 in Owenbeg in last year's Division 2A and the Derry boss admits he was surprised to see Brian Dowlings' team relegated from the Joe McDonagh Cup last season.

"They're a good team. I was very surprised that they came down out of the Joe McDonagh last season," he added, "After playing in Division 2A last year I felt they would be very, very strong. Offaly beat them in the 2A league final and then the wheels came off their season a bit.

"They just seemed to lose their way but, look, they went back into the league this year and remain a very good team. They are fit, they're strong and they have a big record against Derry over the past five or six years.

"But we are really looking forward to the game. It's, not the first big game, but it's probably the first game this year when we're not the favourites and we have to try to get a reaction to see where our boys are at. If we want to progress and move forward this is where we want to play at."

With four Christy Ring Cup victories in the last decade, the most recent in 2022, Kildare are the most successful county in the competition's history but McGarvey believes that's a challenge to relish for Derry.

"That's what you're after. We are in this competition and we want to win it but Kildare are certainly the benchmark. All their forwards are good players but James Burke and Jack Sheridan are different gravy. They're probably as good a players as any outside of the McCarthy teams. They're really good scoring forwards who rattled up big scores during their league.

"They have maybe 1-10 or 1-012 each in the two Christy Ring games played so they are probably the two to watch but they have talent all over the pitch."But if we work as hard as we worked last week against Tyrone and get our forwards going, striking the ball and passing the ball as nicely as we did we can cause any team problems. The boys kept their standards very high and we will need to do the same this weekend."