'The All-Ireland series is a totally different animal'

It’s fair to say Derry manager Damian McErlain was the catalyst that reignited Derry’s unmatched underage renaissance in the last decade. McErlain was the man in charge back in 2015 when a five point hero Shane McGuigan helped the Oakleafers win Ulster for the first time in 13 years. A glut of underage success would follow and continues to do so.

The Magherafelt manager would guide Derry to three Ulster titles, two All Ireland finals and last year’s All Ireland win. Sorry, make that four Ulster titles now.

The Derry manager still gets that same thrill. “It’s first class” he enthused. “Ulster titles are never easy won, they’re never just handed out. Every minor team is a different team. You have to build from start to finish. But I’m absolutely delighted. You would be devastated if you lose this match.

“Of this group here there are four or five boys with back to back medals,” he explained. “It’s a brilliant experience for all the players and I’m so proud of them. They work very, very hard. They do whatever is asked of them.”

McErlain acknowledged his talented young side arrived at Healy Park as strong favourites to retain their title. “Everybody says it would be us would win it and that’s a difficult mantle to carry. It takes a good team to carry that and go on and win the championship. There was no complacency there. We knew how hard we had to work.

“Armagh is a good well-conditioned, well coached proper side,” he continued. “There was no surprises at all for us about how good they’d be. The danger is you might think you can score 3-19 every game and it’s another glory day. But our boys understand the game, about how tough it can be and the depths you have to go to win these matches.”

The Derry manager agreed his players struggled throughout to infiltrate a well drilled Armagh defence.

“Omagh is such a big pitch. We felt that we were taking the ball standing a fair bit and not really causing them a threat. And a couple of chances we got in the first half when we cut through them and had half goal chances, but we probably didn’t do enough of that,” he conceded.

“The key thing in these games is not to give the ball away and give the opposition energy. We’re pleased with the composure and maturity we showed.”

The Fr Murray Cup now up front on the Chambers Coach back to Derry, McErlain and his side now look to retain their Tom Markham Cup.

“The All Ireland series is a totally different animal,” he explained. “It’s like a restart button. You have three more championship matches if you are very lucky.

“Look we play Dublin now – it doesn’t get any tougher than that. Dublin have a lot of pace. We were down at their game on Monday night and they had the opportunity to kill the match in the first 15/20 minutes and didn’t do it. Longford hung in and hung in and got their just desserts at the finish.

“But Dublin – the pick they have, the athleticism they have – they’re a difficult assignment. There isn’t any complacency there from us – you know you’re playing Dublin and there shouldn’t be any complacency.”