​City of Derry end league on winning note ahead of Junior Cup final

The result changed nothing in terms of the table for Derry, the Green and Black had already dotted their crossed their 't's and dotted their 'i's as far as the top four was concerned, but it did cost Ballymoney fifth position which could yet yield a place in next season's Irish Junior Cup should champions Ballyclare go on to win promotion to the All Ireland league.

Ironically that opportunity now falls to Dromore, Derry's opponents at Kingspan Stadium this Saturday, and Head Coach Richard McCarter was delighted his team will go in search of a first trophy since 2010 on a winning note.

"The final has been a bit of a distraction for a while so it is nice now that the league fixtures are finished that we can start looking foreword properly to it," explained McCarter, "We can talk about it properly now and not have it looming in the background.

"The players knew Saturday was important, maybe not in terms of the table, but they knew it was crucial to finish the league campaign on a positive note. The boys did that and in doing so they surpassed last season's league points tally which is pretty pleasing as well."

And if McCarter was looking for a test of character ahead of the club's first cup final since 2012, then the driving rain and gale force winds of Kilraughts Road provided it. Conditions meant open expansive rugby was never on the menu but with David Lapsley's lovely second half try adding to McDonnell's assured display of kicking, Derry, who led 7-9 at the break, were always in control.

"It was a very good win," added McCarter, "I was slightly concerned going into the game as there wasn't anything on the line as such and conditions were terrible. It was always going to be a real test of our mindset but we played pretty well.

"We only scored the one try but in a way that was what made the performance so pleasing. It was a very, very different type of display in horrible conditions. We had to grind it out and play in the right parts of the pitch. Alex (McDonnell) kicked very well over the 80 odd minutes, both out of hand and at goal, and we kind of suffocated Ballymoney a bit.

"The wind was going sideways at times. There were periods in the game that the rain was torrential and the wind was driving but we took a foothold and even though it was only 7-9 to us at half-time, I thought we had dominated. We missed a couple of big chances through lack of execution but we negotiated the second half pretty well, defended well when we had to, and limited them to only that one try in the opening half."

With the league now wrapped up, all eyes turn to Kingspan and almost as important as victory on Saturday was a clan bill of health ahead of Saturday' big game.

"We knew Saturday was going to be tricky game. Ballymoney have a similar style to Dromore and they’d beaten them before so we knew it was going to be a real test. From that point of view I was interested to see how we coped with it but, yeah, to come through with a win was great and to come through unscathed was even more pleasing."