City of Derry can challenge on three fronts says coach Richard McCarter

The Judges Road men take on Cooke in their Junior Cup this weekend after Saturday's nine try victory over Randalstown set up a quarter-final trip to Ballymena Seconds in the Towns' Cup. Add in their high-flying position in Championship One's top four and there’s every reason for Derry optimism heading into the New Year.

"We have the league, the Towns' Cup and then we have the Junior Cup next week against Cooke so, yeah, we want to try and win both of those cups and finish as high in the league as possible," revealed McCarter after Saturday's 59-10 victory.

"We've told the boys we have a lot to look forward to in the New Year and if we can continue to commit to training and commit to getting Saturdays off work and things like that, then we can really have a go at this. We feel we’re good enough to challenge for the three trophies still on offer."

Indeed McCarter was delighted to see his team continue their good form with what proved a routine Towns' Cup victory on Saturday.

"It was a bit like the game against Carrick last week in that we were big favourites and so we should be," he added, "And not just because we are at home or because we are playing a team from the division below us, but because we are playing well this season and have been consistently good.

"Being favourites has a different challenge in itself, mentally more than physically, and I thought we were sloppy at times in the first half which can happen in games like this. However I thought we were pretty ruthless in the end. Second half especially we scored 20 odd points in 12 minutes I think it was so I'm pretty happy.

"(At the start) We didn't really go through too many good phases. It was more Randalstown's mistakes and their tiredness that let us get through the gaps but that was our challenge then and half-time; to be really structured and ruthless and make sure we got the detail right in our play."

Tries from Killene Thornton (2), Alex McDonnell, Jamie Millar (2), Stephen Corr, David Lapsley, Ian Bratton and Gary McKinley meant Randalstown were never in a game which McCarter believes provided more evidence of Derry’s growth over the last 12 months.

"Momentum was something we talked about before the game," he explained, "We've now been drawn away to Ballymena Seconds in the quarter-final so it’s a step closer our goal of getting to a final this year. That's the way we have to look at it.

"There are going to be games like this where we are expected to win but you have to urn up at the same time and maybe in previous years that would have been a 59-30 kind of a game but we have definitely grown in the last 12 months and today we shown further signs of that.”