Derry hurling manager Johnny McGarvey sees room for improvement despite Tyrone win

Goalscorer Corey O'Reilly was the inspiration behind Sunday's 2-20 to 0-16 victory over Tyrone at a wind swept Celtic Park that saw debuts for the impressive Ruairi O Mianain and former Antrim player, Christy McNaughton. Yet despite leading by 13 points at one stage in the first half, Derry didn't have things all their own way against the Red Hands.

A commanding 0-17 to 0-5 half-time lead was whittled down to five points as Tyrone, with their wind now at their backs, hit seven unanswered points before O'Reilly's superb individual goal eventually steadied the Oak Leaf ship once more. Two late red cards and Dara Mooney's insurance goal made the final scoreline appear more comfortable than it had been at times and McGarvey admitted there's plenty to work on ahead of next Saturday's trip to Letterkenny to face Donegal.

"I'm delighted with the win, I really am but I'm just really disappointed with the way we played for the first 15 minutes of the second half," explained the Derry manager, "Everything we talked about at half-time we didn't do. We didn't control the ball, we lost the breaks.

"To be fair to Tyrone we fully expected them to pull it back, it was probably worth 10 points that breeze and when they got seven in a row at the start of the second half, we were under pressure.

"Corey stepped up with a massive goal for us and it made a big difference. It turned the game and at that stage I thought we controlled the game until the red card. Then there was the second red and the game was over after that.

"No, I'm over the moon to get a win. It's some difference from this time last year when we were beat out the gate by Kerry so I'm happy to get off with a win."

With next season's league restructuring requiring a top three finish to ensure Derry play in the revamped Division Two next year, McGarvey said he was always confident he team could start with a win after a strong first quarter although he admitted they were indebted to keeper Eoin Mulholland for two superb first half saves, including a penalty from Tyrone's Dean Rafferty.

"We talked about it at half-time but I don't think we underestimated the wind, it's just the type of game that it was," added McGarvey, "When you had it you had to make hay and when you didn't you had to dig deep. To be fair we dug deep.

"The first 15 minutes of the match was probably when we won it. I think it went 0-14 to 0-1 and I felt at that stage we would have to do something really stupid to mess it up. I felt 12 or 13 points was where it had to be at half-time but when it came back to five then definitely the sweat was coming on then.

"Eoin made two really good saves; the penalty save was a big one. I think that would have brought it back to eight or nine at that stage and all of a sudden it is a different game with the wind to come for them, but you need that. That's what he's in there to do, he's in there to keep the ball out of the net and we got a clean sheet today so I'm over the moon with that."

Kevin Lynch's Corey O'Reilly hit an excellent 1-04 from play to edge out O Mianain and full back Paddy Kelly for the 'Man of the Match' honours and while delighted to start with a win, McGarvey is expecting another tough test in O'Donnell Park this coming Saturday .

"He (Corey) is just a machine, up and down that pitch all day," smiled the Derry manager, "He worked really really hard and I thought he was brilliant. Paddy Kelly too, what a game he had, especially in the first half when we were getting caught a lot in one on ones. We really shouldn't have been but Paddy, even in the second half when we were under a bit of pressure, I thought he was brilliant. You had Ruairi (O Mianain) on his debut as well, he was first class.

"But performances do matter. If you want to improve then performances do matter so we will work on what we did wrong, try to continue to do what we did right and roll on to Letterkenny next Saturday."