By Michael McMullan

DERRY are hoping to build on their Ulster final performance against Antrim when they step into the All-Ireland series on Sunday.

The Oakleafers host Sligo and ace forward Annie Ní Lochlainn said they are going to throw everything at the game.

After a testing league campaign, Derry have a young squad that put two earlier convincing defeats to Antrim behind them to push the Saffrons all the way for the title.

Derry targeted their London championship game from earlier in the season and it worked. It was a victory that gave them both confidence and momentum going into a third clash with Antrim.

“We were underdogs and rightly so, they (Antrim) were unbeaten,” the Glen player said of the Ulster decider.

“We didn’t get the win but we took positive feedback from it. We were on top coming in at half-time.”

After almost taking themselves by surprise, Derry’s realisation is the need to see out games. They’ve the fitness and the fresh legs coming in off the bench.

If they are to progress, it’s about more than that. There is no substitute for the pressure of a tight finish until you are there, staring at a turning point.

“We just need more experience of being in that winning position,” Ní Lochlainn outlined.

“We didn’t have a great league, so we were never really in that position of carrying out a game to the very end.

“Now that we’ve got there, it’s just about getting the experience of seeing it out.”

Historically Derry have been standing on the lower rungs of the inter-county games. Dig deeper and there is a club scene that is growing every year. Literally. The u-14 championship begins this weekend with 29 clubs across four grades. A huge increase since 2017 when Derry were last in an All-Ireland final.

When Derry’s season started, there were just enough players to field a team. It’s grown with the help of players coming in off the minor team.

“The average age is 19 or 20, or even younger, which is great,” Ní Lochlainn said.

“Hopefully that group will stay together. We’ve gelled very well. It’s a very tight group, we know what we’re about and we know what we want.

“Hopefully we’ll get to a stage where we get that. If it’s not this year, it’ll definitely be the next few years.

“We’re already proving that after a few months together, we can put it up to the teams like Antrim.

“We’ve kept it competitive until the last few minutes. Hopefully we can keep pushing on.”

Derry’s improvement has been centred on a championship focus, a deeper squad and throwing everything at it.

Since the defeat, disappointment emerged. A realisation they were close.

“We’ve had a few rough years and this league campaign wasn’t great,” Ní Lochlainn said.

“We have that bit of confidence now, coming off that match against Antrim, like, I know we didn’t win, but we can take loads and loads of positives out of it.”

In the league, they played a Sligo team they were leading before failing to see out the game. Much like the recent Ulster final. They’ll hope both lessons can point them in the right direction on Sunday.

“We’re in Owenbeg, so we’ve got home advantage,” she concluded.

“We’ll throw everything at it. We’re very focused and we know what we want. We know we can do it if we battle hard and have confidence in ourselves.”