By Michael McMullan

DERRY manager Rory Gallagher wasn’t pleased with everything about his side’s convincing win over Clare, but the former attacking ace was happy with the “devastating brilliance” that put Clare to the sword with a five-goal blitz.

It was a far cry from Derry’s 0-12 all draw with Monaghan in the McKenna Cup on their first outing of the season when they failed to convert three goal chances.

Saturday was different, with goals from Benny Heron, Conor Glass and Paul Cassidy putting them in a match-winning position by half time.

“It’s a long way from the early season and you’re into the really enjoyable part for players and supporters, but the ground work has to be done and thankfully we scored early on and we opened up the game,” said Gallagher, pointing to how he expected Clare to conceded the kick-out and stay “conservative.”

Derry’s plan was to blow the game open early on and force Clare to change their approach.

“We missed a number of point chances, but took the goals early
on very well and it left Clare having
to change tact which didn’t suit the way they wanted to go about it,” he said.

After scoring their opening two goals, Derry conceded an unanswered 1-2 before Paul Cassidy hammered the ball to the top corner of the net to open a 3-6 to 1-3 interval lead.

“Probably we became a wee bit nonchalant and a bit too much of a shoot-out from a defensive point of view once we got the second goal.

“We left a few gaps that we wouldn’t be happy with but it was a great response and great quality.

“It’s great to see that quality coming through and that ruthlessness and what I would call devastating brilliance from individuals.”

It was a day when Shane McGuigan notched all but one point from his 1-8 tally from play and was replaced to a rapturous applause.

“It’s good scoring and he’s a very good player,” Gallagher said of McGuigan’s performance.

“Shane’s very aware that the other players are a crucial part of the way we go about things, but the one quality Shane has at every occasion is that he puts the team first.

“Sometimes putting the team first means he has to come up with the shots but he also very much has a lot of other qualities.”