DERRY SFC: Glen goal key moment - O'Rourke

Glen manager Malachy O’Rourke was delighted after retaining the Derry senior title and leaving their best performance of the season for Celtic Park on the final day.

He felt Slaughtneil would come back hungry, with a point to prove after last year’s final defeat.

His side needed a big display, one that saw them clock up five points before Shane McGuigan opened Slaughtneil score after 20 minutes.

“We are delighted with the performance; we have gradually been getting better and we saved our best for last thankfully enough,” said O’Rourke, who commented on the frustration of not being able to break Newbridge down in their semi-final.

The Glen boss wasn’t expecting the same commanding start as last year’s win over Slaughtneil, but was content with how it settled his side.

“In these games, with the way teams set up and get a lot of bodies back, if you have a three or four-point lead, it gives you have bit of breathing space,” O’Rourke said.

“The other team is under that bit more pressure, having to get the scores back and you can play a more controlled game, so it helped us that way.”

With Ciaran McFaul and Conor McDevitt unavailable this season, coupled with Cathal Mulholland, Emmett Bradley and Jack Doherty returning to action later in the campaign, O’Rourke paid tribute to Glen’s strength in depth.

Glen's Ryan Dougan. Pic by Mary K Burke.

With a 0-7 to 0-2 interval lead, Glen had one hand on the John McLaughlin Cup. With Eunan Mulholland pushed up prevent Chrissy McKaigue being the free man, the Slaughtneil defence were under more pressure in the early stages of the second half.

For the opening five minutes after the restart, Glen owned the ball with Slaughtneil mustering only failed attack and a Christopher Bradley wide. The Wattys moved the ball out of contact and took the sting out of the game.

Brian Cassidy had a half chance for goal, but, collectively, they never really looked like laying a glove on the champions.

“We had that sort of a lead, as long as you don’t do anything silly and control the ball they had to come out and with the pace we have we felt we could exploit that,” O’Rourke said.

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“Slaughtneil started to win some of our kick-outs and started to chip away at it. We were bit passive and weren’t making inroads going forward as we’d have liked. The goal was a massive thing, it deflated Slaughtneil and gave us the rhythm to push on.”

On the one occasion Slaughtneil hit three points without reply to get back into the game at 0-10 to 0-6, Ethan Doherty fired over the final nail before Cathal Mulholland’s goal finished off the game.

“It was a massive score; they were chipping away. Ethan found a bit of space to get a score and they are a killer to the opposition. They knew they were going to have to get a goal to get back into it.”