GAA - Kevin Johnston superb in Derry win

Not a 'Ker' in the world

WHEN Brian McIver read out his starting line-up for the game, Kevin Johnston would have been forgiven for thinking he’d drawn the short straw. Dungiven’s classy half back was tasked with picking up Kevin McKernan, Down’s pre-eminent player and a man who destroyed Derry in their previous Ulster Championship game in 2013. Two first half points from the boot of McKernan suggested it would be a long day for the Derry defender and wise heads in the stands questioned whether Johnston was up to the task. They needn’t have worried. The longer the game went on, the better Johnston performed. Indeed, the talented half back turned the tables on his more illustrious marker to make a Herculean sprint forward to win a final free for Derry with the game deep in injury time and the result very much in the balance. When Eoin Bradley tapped over the resulting kick, the game was Derry’s. Relief, rather than ecstasy was the Derry players prevailing emotion immediately after the game. “Probably just relieved to get the win,” confirmed Johnston. “We were in a good positon in the second half to get the win. I thought we were just starting to get a grip on the game, without really running away with it. “They went a man down and I thought we should have kicked on then. The performance in the second half wasn’t good enough and Down could easily have gone on and won it.” The Dungiven man’s battle with McKernan was one of the highlights of the encounter, with the Down talisman starting brightly, before the Derry man had the crucial final say. “He’s not easy marked, he covers some ground. In the first half he got two scores there. You think you have him covered and then he’s away. “I’m disappointed in that side of things to give away two points, but as I say we got the win and I suppose that’s all that really matters.” Asked if he thought that the Derry players had taken the foot off the pedal after McGovern’s dismissal and the defender agreed. “I think it can sometimes happen when you go a man up. You protect what you have, maybe in the back of your mind you think that the game is there for the taking. “But they pressed up and threw everything at us. I thought Down were excellent with the 14 men and we were maybe lucky to come out with the win in the end up.” Johnston was instrumental in Derry’s final, match winning score. Eoin Bradley wrestled away from a couple of Down markers around the half way line before finding the Derry wing-half back deep in enemy territory. Johnston, showing staggering levels of athleticism in the searing Celtic Park heat, hared on towards goal and was dragged to the ground just as he was about to pull the trigger. The transgressor Darren O’Hagan was quite rightly given the black card, but that mattered little. Derry and Johnston had won a simple free and the game was won. The Dungiven man was far from happy with his own side’s scoring return, especially after the brea, where they scored only four points. “I don’t know how many scores we got in the second half but it wasn’t enough. We definitely needed that point at the end just to finally get us ahead and get the win.” 2011 seems a mighty long time ago and Derry’s first Ulster Championship win since that day against Armagh in Clones has been a long time coming. Kevin Johnston for one certainly enjoyed its arrival when it finally came yesterday. “Definitely. It’s championship football and you want to enjoy it. I’m happy enough to get through but our second half performance was disappointing. “We’re going to be coming up against either Donegal or Armagh - probably the two best teams in Ulster, so the performance will definitely have to be seriously upped. “We’ve just got over the line here today and we’re happy enough with that but we know that performance won’t be good enough next time. We’ve had a lot of games at Celtic Park and we haven’t got the results. “We know that record was disappointing for the players and the supporters. Hopefully now we can get the supporters behind us and push on.”

FULL MATCH REPORT, PHOTOS, INTERVIEWS & ANALYSIS in COUNTY DERRY POST