Our league starts now says Derry hurling boss McGarvey

DERRY manager Johnny McGarvey says his side’s Division Two campaign effectively begins on Saturday.

The Oakleafers welcome Mayo to the recently renamed Find Insurance Celtic Park with both teams bidding for a first win.

After suffering a heavy defeat in the first weekend of the season against Kerry, Derry then gave a more creditable performance last weekend against Laois.

Speaking after their Conor McGurk Cup final win over Donegal, McGarvey had highlighted the different levels within the seven-team Division Two.

“It’s no different now than it was before it started,” he said. “Realistically, we were never expected to get anything out of the first two games, so our league starts now.”

This time last year, Derry had two points on the board from an early win over Tyrone before slumping to defeat against both Kerry and eventually league champions Down.

The Oakleafers responded with a run of form that saw them stay clear of relegation and hurl all the way to the Christy Ring Cup final.

Derry were 10 points down against Kerry, on home soil, eventually shipping five goals in their opening defeat last month.

With a more defensive system in place, they headed for Portlaoise to make sure the game didn’t run away from them.

“Laois, for me, are probably the favourites to win the McDonagh Cup, so they’re now both out of the way,” he said of Loais and Kerry coming first in the league.

Derry will be without Christy McNaughton (holidays) and Thomas Brady (suspended).

The latter was sent off against Laois and in the absence of any video evidence, Derry won’t be appealing.

“We were reasonably happy with the Laois match,” McGarvey said. “We defended really, really well.

“We were defending in serious numbers; we certainly didn’t want a repeat of what happened the week before.

“I think there are loads of positives to take. We probably gave them five or six scores that we really shouldn’t have.

“When Thomas was sent off, I think it was back to 0-6 to 0-2 or 0-6 to 0-3 and we were well in that match.

“I would love to have seen how that match could have finished if we had kept 15 on the pitch because it just left us really light up front.

“We defended well. We had some really good scores and some nice passes from play. Our intensity levels, our tackle count, everything was massively up on the week before.

“We were quite happy with how that went. The Kerry match was a disaster and we don’t shy away from it. You park it and you move on.”

“We make no bones about it, we set up defensively to make sure that after 10 or 15 minutes, we were in the match,” he said of the Laois game.

“The disappointment in the Laois match was that we were 0-6 to 0-0 down.

“They were big and they were strong and they were physical. We have a lot of new lads in there who are trying to find their feet. Laois and Kerry aren’t the sort of places that you try and learn.”