AT long, long last, it's almost Championship time and the hairs begin to stand on the back of your neck as Rory Gallagher speaks passionately about Sunday’s clash between Derry and Armagh at Celtic Park.
Last time there was a knockout All-Ireland Championship (2000), Gallagher was marked by now Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney when his native Fermanagh met the Orchardmen at the Ulster semi-final stage. Gallagher won the battle (he scored 0-8) but his county lost the war by a point. A one-point win will do him nicely on Sunday for underdogs Derry who go into the game on the back of two-out-of-two since the League resumed.
“At times we played very well in both games, albeit that the standard of opposition was well below Armagh,” he said.
“But we’re happy enough with how the games went. I know Armagh quite well over the last number of years, I’ve been monitoring them in the League, I saw them in the flesh against Fermanagh and they were devastating. I’ve been impressed with them, they have stuck with it even though they’d had some tough days and you have to admire the resilience and their character the way they’ve come up from Division Three.”
Conor Glass has returned from the AFL in time to slot into the Derry midfield and his presence strengthens the spine of the team from Brendan Rodgers at full-back, through Chrissy McKaigue up to front two, Shane McGuigan and Niall Loughlin.
Gallagher says the Covid-19 enforced mid-season break allowed time for injuries to heal, players to rest, for him to get to know his squad and vice-versa.
“We used it well,” he said.
“The Slaughtneil players in particular needed some down-time and I enjoyed the break from the point of view of getting our house in order in Derry.”
Karl McCaigue is a long-term injury but apart from the Slaughtneil clubman, Gallagher expects to have a full-strength squad – including Enda Lynn who didn’t play in the NFL - for Sunday’s quarter-final.
“At the start of the year we found it difficult, we were relatively disjointed, we had players injured and we didn’t have the players that I wanted to coach and manage,” he said.
“We are now getting the best players with the right type of character playing on the field and in the last two games there were good signs that we’re getting to a level and an understanding together that can move us forward.”
There are scoring options right through this Derry team but central to their progress will be the form of inside forwards Shane McGuigan and Greenlough clubman Loughlin.
“A spread of scorers is great and I’d love if we had a spread of scorers and we had Shane kicking 1-10 on top of it but, to be brutally honest, you are going nowhere without marquee forwards who can win games in crunch moments and deliver big scores,” said Gallagher.
“In Shane and Niall Loughlin we have that and I think they’re looking forward to announcing themselves on the inter-county stage.”
Both of Sunday’s combatants have been under-achievers over the past five years with just two Ulster Championship wins between them (one each) and Gallagher says the likes of Ciaran McFaul, Paudie Cassidy, Brendan Rodgers, Chrissy McKaigue, Enda Lynn and Emmet Bradley want to change that.
“They haven’t won many Ulster Championship matches and that is a huge sense of hurt on your pride and your self-esteem,” he said.
“The Ulster Championship is very special and it’s where you want to play. Runs in backdoors are grand, but you want to win in Ulster and get that sense of achievement in doing it.
“Derry haven’t had the success rate they’d like and this week we need to put everything into making sure we produce a performance that gives us that result at the weekend.”
Next season, two League divisions will separate Derry and Armagh but Gallagher certainly doesn’t see a big gulf between the counties.
“We lost two games in our division this year – we should have beaten Down and we lost to Cork,” he said.
“We think that’s a fair barometer of where we’re at. Where Armagh are at, time will tell. It’s up to us to put our best foot forward and there’s no point in talking, we’ve got to produce the level of performance, the consistency of quality that we have shown at times.
“Championship is different from the League – you have to have the temperament, the character, the commitment to your team-mates on the big day. If we have that, I don’t see a big difference between us and Armagh at all.”
