Football

GAA gaining ground on soccer in Derry City says Steelstown's Neil Forrester

Derry's Neil Forrester tangles with Aaron Morgan of Queen's during Wednesday night's Dr McKenna Cup win
Derry's Neil Forrester tangles with Aaron Morgan of Queen's during Wednesday night's Dr McKenna Cup win Derry's Neil Forrester tangles with Aaron Morgan of Queen's during Wednesday night's Dr McKenna Cup win

AS A young player from a young club, Neil Forrester admits he was “blown away” when he got the nod to captain a fledgling Derry side against Down last Sunday.

The wing-back became the first man from the Steelstown Brian Ogs in the heart of Derry City to skipper his county and, though the Oak Leafers lost by a point, he’ll never forget the pride he felt walking out at Pairc Esler.

“I don’t know when the last time a man from the city captained Derry,” said Forrester.

“We’re a young club – we’re only 30 years-old this year. But I was blown away this week. I’m just happy to start and then they told me I was captain…

“I’m a very proud Derry man but even when you’re dreaming as a youngster it never crossed my mind that I would be captain some day. It was nearly too much to even consider.

“I’m honoured because, first of all, there’s not too many city men play for Derry and, as a Steelstown man, I’m the first player from my club to captain my county.

“I’m proud and I wish we had got the victory because a lot of fans came up from the city and I’m disappointed for them. On a personal level I couldn’t put it in words, it means too much to me.”

There aren’t many city men on the county panel because large swatches of Derry are dominated by soccer. Or maybe it’s ‘were’ nowadays because Forrester says the GAA is slowly gaining ground?

“I never played soccer,” he said.

“See Steelstown men, we’re all true Gaels. They play soccer in the city but in Steelstown we’re Gaels through and through and Gaelic Football is the number one sport.

“I’m the promotion officer for Steelstown in Derry city so I go around the schools and try to spread the good message.

“It’s going really well, our numbers are growing in the city and Steelstown – for our U8s we’ve now got 60 players and stuff like that so we’re going in the right direction and building it.

“We have four U21s in the Derry panel and another man in the minor squad. It’s a slow process but to see so many boys coming through gives me serious hope as well. Derry city is on the rise and parts of it, especially Steelstown, are Gaelic orientated, not soccer.”

The youngsters brought into the panel by Damien Barton this year will have been encouraged by the places up for grabs after a host of last season’s squad walked away. Forrester says there’s a buoyant mood and that will have been helped by qualification for the Dr McKenna Cup semi-finals.

“I think there’s a really good mood around the camp,” he said.

“Some boys couldn’t commit. If they have married life and work and whatever it’s a serious strain training three-four times a week. If you’ve a young family that’s difficult.

“But there’s no point in looking at that and we haven’t, we’ve brought in a lot of young blood.

“We had eight debuts against Armagh and four or five against Down and they all stood up. It’s going to take a while for us to gel but there’s a serious positivity about our group.

“We want to show the characteristics of good attitude and we want to play for Derry. If we keep fighting to the end like we did today we’re going to get the wins and it’s going to come.”

Derry’s chances of reaching the last four seemed to have gone up in smoke after Down held on to win by a point last weekend. But a landslide win against Queen’s saw them overtake Armagh on scoring average.

“It’s a very young team and we had four or five boys making their debuts so we showed a bit of grit and determination like we did against Armagh to get back into it,” said Forrester after last Sunday’s loss in Newry.

“We’re disappointed not to get the draw – in the last 10 minutes we were really pushing but it was the turnovers that really cost us in the end up.

“We’re a young team and we gave away a wild lot of possession and that’s what cost us.

“It was only the second game for a lot of the boys, so they’re not going to have that perfect sharpness at the minute.”