Football

Players changed approach in win over Cavan - Ryan Bell

Ryan Bell continued his good early season form with 1-5 in last Sunday's McKenna Cup semi-final win over Cavan<br />Picture by Colm O'Reilly
Ryan Bell continued his good early season form with 1-5 in last Sunday's McKenna Cup semi-final win over Cavan
Picture by Colm O'Reilly
Ryan Bell continued his good early season form with 1-5 in last Sunday's McKenna Cup semi-final win over Cavan
Picture by Colm O'Reilly

DERRY forward Ryan Bell revealed the Oak Leafers’ early decision to shake up their attacking plan in last Sunday’s win over Cavan was a piece of in-game management from the players.

The tactic of delivering early ball to himself and Cailean O’Boyle was being gobbled up by a well-populated Cavan defence in the first 20 minutes. The sides were level at 0-4 apiece, with Cavan having looked the more threatening, when Derry were awarded a penalty which Bell converted.

That set them on their way but, by that stage, the Ballinderry man had already moved out towards the middle as the Oak Leafers changed it up and began to run at the Breffni men.

”The first thing we were trying was to get the long ball in and see what way it would go, but obviously they had it down to a tee, with a sweeper in front of us. We just decided ourselves to run at them and that’s how we got the scores in the first-half," Bell said.

“We’re old enough now. You can’t just rely on the men on the line now. It’s county level you’re playing at. You have to step up and take ownership of yourself and make the right decisions."

Of his own decision to drift out of full-forward, he said: “The ball wasn’t coming in and I would get frustrated. I like going out and trying to get on the ball. I worked coming off deep and getting the long-range points and it worked well.”

Midway through the second-half, a ball was drilled hard at him down the line opposite the stand side. Not much inside the 45, from almost right on the sideline, he threw the right boot at it with hardly a second glance at the posts. The ball seemed to hang for an eternity before it came down above Raymond Galligan’s crossbar. It was a stunning score which illuminated a 1-5 tally in a man-of-the-match display from the 22-year-old.

“It was one of those days when everything went over the bar, everything was falling right for me,” he modestly added.

“I’ll take it as it comes. I’m happy enough with the way I played, but there’s still loads to work on. Tyrone have won as well, so we’ll go back to the drawing board. There were plenty of mistakes there. We let Cavan get a goal, which we were trying to keep them from doing and our shooting in the second-half led to a lot of wides.”

He took 2015 out altogether, but has returned looking leaner and more determined. Having started all of Derry’s four Bank of Ireland Dr McKenna Cup games so far, he has notched up 4-13, of which 0-10 has come from play. The four goals have all come from the penalty spot and all in an emphatic manner.

“In my younger days, I used to hit penalties for Cookstown Youth in the soccer and it’s stood by me in the last couple of games," Bell added.

“On Saturday, I hit a penalty for Tony Scullion. He told me to hit the top left and I hit the top left for him. It’s just something I work on after sessions. I don’t hit them for Ballinderry because Conleith Gilligan’s there, but I work on it quite a lot,” said the quietly-spoken forward.

The fact that Damian Barton appears intent on implementing a style of football that suits the twin powers of himself and Cailean O’Boyle gives encouragement to Bell: "In previous years, Derry have been the wee bit to the defensive side of football,” said the Oak Leaf attacker.

“Damian’s a wee bit more attack minded, which I would prefer. Defensive football nowadays, it’s not easy watched. It just depends how well it goes. Sometimes, it can be frustrating for you.

"We’re lucky enough, Damian’s brought an attacking mindset to the team this year. That’s helped us out. And the ball from the half-forward line and half-back line going into us has been brilliant.”