Mickey Harte 'can't understand fuss' as Derry defeat Tyrone in Celtic Park

Much of the build up to the game focused on Harte and his assistant, Gavin Devlin, coming up against their native county for the first time since their departure in 2020 but following the 1-12 to 0-09 win, the Oak Leaf boss stressed outside managers were no longer a rarity in the modern game.

"Well for some people it was but I don't really live that way," explained Harte when asked if Sunday's fixture held any special significance, "I just come along here to manage Derry as I’ve done for the last four or fives games. It just happens to be Tyrone as the opposition. Look, they have their own set-up and they’re on their own journey. I'm on this journey now and a lot of people make more of it than is necessary. I don't see any big deal in it.

"It’s not an unique phenomenon. I've seen plenty of managers go from their own county to other counties for years on end now and I've seen plenty of our own county men go to other counties. There was no particular fuss about it so I don't really see the point of a fuss now."

While happy with the result, Harte played down the significance of the win and said he was unaware of the "outside noise" surrounding a game that saw Derry continue their 100 per cent start to life under its new management team.

"Personally I don't read too much of it so I didn't get the noise bit," he added, "But I know it's out there and players can't avoid hearing it and all but as Brian Dooher always said, it's never about the line. It is about the players on the field and the people on the field had to do that business. That's who it was left to ultimately."

Despite turning around with only a three point lead having played with the strong wind, Derry's victory was secured thanks to an excellent second half in which Magherafelt's Cormac Murphy played a starring role on his full league debut.

"He does bring something different to the table," explained the Oak boss, "He's got electric pace. He's got the ability to take people on in tight spaces and has the burners to get away from them and knows where the posts are so, yeah, he is a very valuable asset to this team.

"But we know Tyrone are missing a host of top class players so we're not getting carried away and thinking we have beaten the Tyrone team; we have beaten the Tyrone players who were available at the minute. I know several names that would makes a serious change on that team and they're just not available tonight so you have to factor that in as well.

"When you do factor that in we did well to get away with it because we didn't use the breeze too well. We did well in the second half to make the game, to some degree, comfortable for ourselves."