By Niall Gartland

A MEMORABLE journey for the Derry minors has come to an end at the penultimate stage in the race for the All-Ireland, and manager Kieran Glackin expressed his undiluted pride in his players following their defeat to Cork.

Second-half goals from Tom Whooley and Alex O’Herlihy ended Derry’s bid for a place in the All-Ireland minor final against Tyrone, and their players were understandably crestfallen in the aftermath of the game. Still, there were so many positives to take from their run to the last four in the race for the Tommy Markham Cup.

Manager Kieran Glackin said: “We’re very disappointed. We would’ve liked to be playing in two weeks’ time, but it wasn’t to be. Still, we’re very proud of the boys. The better team won on the day, but the boys have worked very hard.

“They went through an extremely competitive Ulster final to get to an All-Ireland semi-final, and I would safely say the best two teams in Ireland [Tyrone and Cork] are in the final.”

Derry showed commendable resilience to bounce back from their Ulster final defeat to Tyrone, getting back on the wagon with an All-Ireland quarter-final win over Roscommon.

“It is a journey for the families, young brothers, sisters, cousins and aunts. Everybody gets a chance to jump on and follow it.

“Every one of those lads, from one to 34, worked really hard. They put in maximum effort. Their clubs and families should be proud of them. They put in a huge effort to get to the semi-final.”

“There are a lot of disappointed lads in the changing room and a lot of heads down, which is only natural. It’s an early stage in their football development for a lot of those footballers.”

One of the defining moments in the game was a superb individual goal from Whooley, handing Cork a lead that they never relinquished. Glackin believes Derry should have been awarded a free in the lead up but it’s all a matter of history at this stage.

“Look, it’s all those things. Every passage of play is important. We were on the attack and thought we should’ve had a free. A short time later, the ball was in the back of the net.

“That’s not to say it caused the defeat. Cork are a very good team, very physical and very good up front. It is a game of passages of play, and they kept us under pressure on kickouts and got a few points. It did feel like the game was slipping away.”

Concluding, Glackin expressed his belief that a healthy number of his team will continue their intercounty career in the years to come.

“A lot of them will definitely represent Derry at Under-20 and senior level, and some will have big careers with their clubs. We’d love to bring as many of them through as possible. Time will tell, but quite a few of them will come through.”