Derry manager Rory Gallagher happy to keep on playing as Ulster Championship looms

Derry’s slim promotion hopes were ended this week after Longford conceded their final fixture against Cork, a decision which means the ‘Rebels’ and Down will be the two counties making the jump to Division Two next season. Gallagher admitted he was surprised the game wasn’t going ahead while Waterford’s subsequent concession of their away Division Four game against Antrim had some questioning the logic behind playing football in the current lockdown.

The Derry manager however said he was happy to follow the advice of the experts and is anxious to finish the league season on a high.

“Not in the slightest,” explained Gallagher when asked if he was worried about travelling, “We are going to drive down separately. The players want to play for their county. There was that long period without football and I can only speak for the players of Derry but they are itching to play football. We want to prolong our season for as long as we can, that’s our attitude to it.

“We are taking in all the medical advice and guidance from our team doctor and the County Board. We feel we are being very safe in what we do and we are just looking forward to playing.

“To be fair to the Irish Government and the GAA, they have been very consistent and followed the top medical advice throughout,” he explained, “NPHET (The National Public Health Emergency Team) have been very clear that they are happy for elite sport to continue. They see the risk as minimal.

“It’s important for elite players and we consider our players to be elite, even though they are all amateurs and have to go to work.

“I personally don’t have any worries. There is obviously a more stringent lockdown now in place and we have to hope the numbers and the risks to hospitals goes down but if that does rise again and football is deemed too big a risk, we will postpone it and play it later on. That’s fair enough, but at the minute most seem happy enough to play it.

"I am surprised the (Longford) game is not going ahead. Personally, we all want to play football and while I can’t speak for Longford, I certainly want to play football and our players certainly want to play football.

“At the end of the day, no one knows what is going on in each county and it has to be up to individual counties to make their own decisions. These are unusual circumstances we are operating in and we just have to roll with it. Yes, we would have liked the shot at promotion and we had an outside chance but we don’t have that available to us any more so we move on.”

Despite his disappointment at being denied the opportunity to have their promotion fate settled on the field of play, Gallagher said Cork and Down deserve to go up.

“It does slightly (taint things in the table) but being really cold about it, Down and Cork had put themselves in pole position after five games and had it been ended after five games, which it looked like it would be for a long time, they would have deserved to go up in my opinion so good luck to both of them,” added Gallagher.

“To be honest our focus has been on Armagh since we got back at it. It has been very clear for the long time that regarding the league, we had left ourselves a lot of work to do. Championship is what it is about now and getting ready for Armagh but we are looking forward to the Offaly game. We really want to go down there and win. We lost our two away games so far in this division and we would like to finish the league season having won four out of our last five games to get ready for the championship.”

Gallagher is expected to rotate his starting line-up following last week’s impressive return to football against Longford and should have Conor McCluskey, Shea Downey, Emmet Bradley and Paudie McGrogan back in contention for a starting spot while a decision over Jack and Alex Doherty will be left closer to Sunday.

“I was pleased with the Longford game because I felt we had been training very well and I was delighted then that we brought that training form into the game,” he added.

“To be honest, our performances in the league up to then had reflected the way we had been training so it was good to see that when we are training better and there are better quality players available on the training field, that it follows through on to a game day. I felt we should have made more of a number of goal chances, we probably should have put up another 1-02 or 1-03 at our ease, but at the same time there were a lot of things that if we continue to build on them, they can only be positive for us going into the championship.

And the Derry manager revealed his is close to knowing the side which will take the field against the Orchard County a week on Sunday.

“We would have 12 or 13 players definitively earmarked for Armagh at this stage, there’s no doubt about that. We will probably use this weekend against Offaly to give those lads who weren’t available last week against Longford an opportunity.

“Training has been brilliant and I have really enjoyed being back at it. We haven’t had a lot of sessions but the ones we’ve had have been quality sessions. Just having the calibre of players available to us that we have now, I am very pleased with it. We weren’t able to say that in January or February and it is just a joy to go to training at the minute.

“It is about building 22 or 23 players who are good enough to play in the championship at this stage. I was pleased with how everybody acquitted themselves the last day but I think this week we have to use it as an opportunity to get game-time into those players who were unavailable last week. After that, the last couple of places for Armagh will be decided between four or five players.”