By Michael McMullan

DERRY minor manager Kieran Glackin was glad to see his side “do themselves justice” in Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-final win over Roscommon.

It came eight days after losing the Ulster final to Tyrone despite leading at half-time but it was a productive week for the Derry camp.

After a spell of Tyrone midfield control saw them pull clear of Derry, the Oakleafers dominated the middle sector against Roscommon on the way to a 1-8 to 0-2 lead.

Roscommon launched a comeback but Derry were always able to respond and ran out winners, 2-12 to 1-9.

“It feels like a long week because it wasn’t the nicest feeling walking out of Letterkenny last week,” Glackin said after Saturday’s win.

“To be fair to the boys, they bounced back really, really quickly.  We had an idea of how they came back and how they trained this week that it did hurt them.”

It radiated a feeling they wanted to bounce back and make sure their season wouldn’t be defined by the spell after half-time in the Ulster final when Tyrone hit them for 1-8 without reply.

The group met last Sunday to pick through the embers before launching an attack on the Connacht champions.

“We really targeted getting the performance up to the level it needed to be, doing themselves justice and having no regrets. I suppose that performance showed all those things,” Glackin added.

It was a case of watching the third quarter of the Tyrone defeat, highlighting the tweaks needed and convince the players all was not lost.

“We had to show the boys that we weren’t as poor as we represented ourselves in the short period of time and how we had so many goal chances in the first half,” Glackin said.

There was also a pointer to Tyrone getting in for easy scores at the start of the second half and that the final wasn’t a representation of their potential.

Parked

“We had to very quickly park it and look towards Roscommon because we knew we had a really good opportunity and it was a massive prize, getting to the final,” he said, pointing to the importance of quickly moving on.

“We trained well this week and it’s a good group, there’s good character in the lads and I’m really pleased for them as a group.

“They’ve worked hard since we’ve come together. I’m just really pleased for them that they were able to get the performance and get themselves on to another step forward.”

The platform for Derry’s win was winning 16 of the first 20 kick-outs of the game. By that point, they were nine points ahead and ticking along nicely.

Like every manager in the game, Glackin says football is about kick-outs and what you do with the ball in between.

“We know Michael (Doherty) is a fantastic goalie,” he said. “We are really lucky to have him. We worked really hard in getting the kick-outs to that high level and luckily he was brilliant there.”

Away from the tactical and footballing side of Saturday’s win, it was a performance based on grit. In some ways they played like a team beyond their years.

“We really just wanted the boys to do themselves justice and we really wanted the boys to get the performance to a level that they can,” Glackin added.

“There’s loads of good footballers in that team, there’s loads of good characters, there’s a good mix of toughness, speed, all the things that make a good team.

“We just were very hopeful that they would get the performance and do themselves justice.

“We talked about not having any regrets and making sure that they didn’t leave their minor career behind them and I think they really done that.”