'We've shown we can match anybody' - Derry manager Paddy Tally

Derry manager Paddy Tally cut a frustrated figure after his side’ Ulster Championship exit at hands of reigning champions Donegal on Sunday in Ballybofey.

Going in as underdogs, Derry were level at 0-5 each after a bright opening but a Dáire Ó Baoill hit 1-4 – including a couple of two pointers - to lead by seven at the break.

Derry rallied early in the second half but the home side against took control and held the Oakleafers at arm’s length on the way to a 10-point win.

“It’s very frustrating,” Tally said, giving his first reaction to Sunday’s Defeat. “It's hard, it's disappointing and it's frustrating.”

“We missed the penalty at a crucial time,” Tally said of Shaun’s Patton’s double save to deny Shane McGuigan in the first half.

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“When you come to places like Donegal. in their own patch, you have to get ahead of them. If you had to get the penalty, it would give you a wee bit of a breather. It also lifted Donegal. It just lifted the stadium.

“You could see early in the game, we were controlling it,” Tally added.

“You have to make the most of those chances. In fairness, I thought we started the second half really well too.”

Brendan Rogers and Conor Doherty kicked two-point scores before Donegal kicked on again.

“We brought it back to two. At that stage of the game, that's the time when you have to take control of it.

“Then Donegal went, I think, 10 points unanswered. We just couldn't get hands on the ball. It just wasn't good enough. At this level of football, this is where you're going to be found out. And we were found out today.”

Much of the narrative going into the game surrounded the players Derry didn’t have. As it turned out, Brendan Rogers played and had a significant impact of leaving his side in any way close in the fight.

Others, like Ciaran McFaul and Lachlan Murray, played after having trouble with injuries. It was a day when substitute Patrick McGurk became their fourth championship debut in Ballybofey’s white heat.

“Brendan was only back in training a week,” Tally pointed out. “Ciaran McFaul and Lachlan were the same, only starting to get back fit again for the injuries they had.

“We had three young fellas starting their first match today. What a place to come to play in your first championship match. It's as hard as you're going to get.

“There's no excuses here. This is just part of what it is. The reality is, you're going into Donegal to play one of the top teams and you're just not at your strongest. Until we get our full squad together, it's going to be hard.”

Derry’s next outing will be in six weeks’ time when the All-Ireland series begins with the group stages.

“The position we're in with our squad, we have to get stronger,” Tally said. “This is an opportunity for us now to get work done and we have no excuses coming to the group stages.

“When we're playing well and we're on our game, we're very good,” Tally said of positives he can claw from Sunday.

“We've proved that today. Especially in the early stages of the first half and the early stages of the second half, we can match anybody. “

Jim McGuinness commended the calmness his side showed as they opened their defence of the Ulster SFC with a 1-25 to 1-15 win over Derry in the preliminary round.

“We’re very happy to get through,” McGuinness said. “It was always going to be a very tough task against Derry. They brought a lot of nous and intelligence to their gameplay. They have a lot of ability and they asked a lot of questions

“That was always going to be the case, and we had spoken a lot of that we were hopefully prepared for that as best we could. The first half was classic Ulster championship. It was cagey and there was a lot of intelligence on the pitch and they asked certain questions and we were trying to break free and get them in the counter. They were getting very big moments on the counter as well, none more so than the goal.

“We eventually settled and found a good rhythm in the second half into the breeze that's very pleasing to get that score up in the board at the end of the day.”

With the show firmly on the other foot following Donegal’s surprise 4-11 to 0-17 victory at Celtic Park 12 months ago in the provincial quarter-final and McGuinness’s team tagged with heavy favouritism, they eradicated any doubt front of 15,023 at MacCumhaill Park.

“It would be very disingenuous of me to even go down that road considering we were the role reversal from last year,” McGuinness added. “Everybody wrote us off, but we still believed we could do it so obviously, we knew Derry could come and think the same.

“We felt we could get a very good idea of what they wanted to do. They play very intelligently on transitional moments, and then they can create situations and then establish attacks. They were doing that extremely well in the first half so it was about trying to manage that and navigate that and then obviously, on top of that, then try to reclaim a bit of that. We managed it much better i the second half and kept them on the peripheries, and we were more structured and solid.”