DARKER days. Games that come back to haunt you. The spirit Derry footballers have shown over the past year or so in particular gives them much more than a ghost of a chance of returning to the top flight for next season.
Allstar midfielder Conor Glass manfully tried to downplay the Oak Leafers' latest win, a thumping success away to Kildare, by 2-15 to 0-7 in St Conleth's Park, saying: "We definitely left a few out there, to be honest, we had about six or seven good goal chances, which has probably left a dark cloud over performance. But any time you come to Newbridge and win by that margin it's always a good result."
The 25-year-old was still in Australia when his county was down in the doldrums in 2019. Yet this Saturday night they host the mighty Dublin knowing that a home win will almost certainly assure the Oak Leafers of a return to Division One.
"Next week is massive, for the players and for Derry in general," declared the Maghera man, who captains his county this year. "We'd a few darker days, down in Division Four, but thankfully we're now playing the Dubs in Celtic Park.
"It was 2015 the last time we played them so we're going to get a massive crowd there and the players are fully ready to bring it on."
It still seems remarkable that the Oak Leafers were in the bottom division of the Allianz Football League just four years ago, and now are flying high as reigning Ulster SFC champions, for the first time since 1998.
However, Glass was philosophical about that transformation, commenting: "It's a lot of ups and downs in football. Any player can tell you that. Thankfully we're up at the minute and we have that bit of momentum from last year behind us.
"The players don't want to leave it as a 'one-season team'. We're looking to push on again this year and try to get to the top table."
The only disappointment Glass suffered over the past year was losing the All-Ireland Club SFC Final to Kilmacud Croke's of Dublin, who had an extra player on the pitch in the closing seconds.
Yet the Glen clubman was phlegmatic about that, saying: "Look, it was unfortunate circumstances, for both teams in general. It should never have got to that stage. I guess me and Ethan [Doherty] and Conleth [McGuckian] are just looking to put that behind us now and get into a good season with Derry."
Derry were very unfortunate to miss out on promotion last year, with a controversial draw in Roscommon helping the latter to top the table with 12 points, with Derry ending up on 11 after a subsequent loss to Galway in round six.
Glass remains wary, even though Derry have so far comfortably beaten Limerick, Meath, and Kildare on Sunday past, and also won away to Louth:
"Louth had a good performance… they actually over-turned Meath at home [on Sunday], so that just shows how hard it is in Ardee… any team can beat each other on any given day in National League football. You see it in Division One, Division Two is the exact same. Thank God we're four from four…
"I think we were in this position last year and we probably left points behind in Roscommon; those sort of memories and games come back to haunt you.
"We're looking to right a few wrongs this year and we've put ourselves in the best position possible to do so. Next week is going to be massive for us – if we're able to come out next week with a victory it's going to lift the spirits in the whole county."
Derry have tended to deploy a small pool of players so far but Glass still feels that there will be increased challenges for starting slots off the back of last summer's Ulster triumph:
"You need a good depth in any team. That bit of success from last year pushes a lot of the rest of the squad to try to get into the starting 15, or even into the starting 20.
"Having that competitive training is massive for any team. There's a great buzz in the county underage, whether it be Minors, under-20s. Chrissy McKaigue has said before that success breeds success and hopefully we can continue to keep winning."
