By Michael McMullan

DERRY manager Ciarán Meenagh hailed two key aspects of his side’s display against Kildare on Saturday night in Newbridge.

Aside from the grit they needed to come from five points down, the Oakleaf boss pointed to their use of the ball in the second half when both teams had the same number of players on the field.

Derry lost Conor Glass to a red card after six minutes before Niall Loughlin and Conor Doherty were shown black cards later in the first half. Kildare also had Alex Beirne sent off but it was 14-a-side when the second half began.

Kildare stretched their lead to five points before goals from Paul Cassidy and Lachlan Murray pushed Derry into a 3-6 to 1-11 lead they never lost.

“That takes some character, it takes some guts, it takes some backbone. It takes some amount of leadership and it takes no shortage of quality either, to play and to create the scoring chances that we did in the second half,” Meenagh said, minutes after their win.

Ben Loakman kicked a couple of important two-pointers as Kildare kept in tough with a Derry team that found their groove in the second half.

Meenagh hailed the conditioning of his players who were able to stretch Kildare while defending man-on-man at the back.

“I felt when it got back to even numbers and Kildare went after the ball high up the field, our athleticism and our pace and our ability on the counter attack made a big difference,” he said, before also looking back over the final quarter.

With Ethan Doherty, Shane McGuigan and Lachlan Murray stretching Kildare, they were able to play the game on their own terms.

It was typified by a vital Niall Loughlin score after Loakman had thumped over an inspirational  score at the other end seconds earlier.

“The most pleasing point is the character and the bottle and the leadership that we showed,” Meenagh said before giving his take on what Derry offered in the crucial final third of the game.

“The second most pleasing thing is when we got our noses in front, how we managed the game,” he said.

“It was not just how we managed the game in the offensive half of the field, but how we managed the game elsewhere because we went completely man to man against the breeze.

“There was no point in sitting in a zone formation and them running good lines with very, very accurate players.

“That was difficult to defend and we tried to get the message on to stop trying to mark them at distance, get out and take your chance.”

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