Derry survival is on the line in Mullingar

DERRY must beat Westmeath on Sunday in Mullingar to give themselves a chance of beating the drop from Division Two.

It still won’t be enough to save them if London then avoid defeat at home to Laois later this month.

Manager Johnny McGarvey laid it all on the line after their defeat at home to London last weekend, a result that puts the Exiles in a strong position to escape relegation.

“I’d have been the first to say at the start of the season, if you had to go to Westmeath and win you were in serious trouble,” McGarvey said after Saturday’s crunch home game.

“What are we going to do about it? We’re not going to go and cry about it and feel sorry for ourselves.

“We’re going to have to go now, dust ourselves down and go to try and win that match in Westmeath to save ourselves.

“We’re very proud that we’re Derry senior hurlers and we’re very proud to be hurling people. We’re not going to lie down and just take this.

“We’re not going to go down to Westmeath for the day out. We’re going to go there and try and get a result to keep Derry hurling in the division that we need to be in.”

After losing to Kerry and Laois at the start of the campaign, Derry beat Mayo at home to give them a chance of surviving.

In their penultimate league game, in Meath, Derry were ahead all the way to stoppage time before the Royals reeled them in. It set up last Saturday’s visit of London, a repeat of last year’s Christy Ring Cup final.

This was a similar result. London came out on top in the rucks and hit goals at crucial times in a 3-7 to 0-14 win.

“We weren’t good enough. We didn’t play well enough. It’s on us today,” McGarvey said of last weekend’s outing.

“We started fairly slow and we went 1-3 to no score down. For the next 20 minutes, I thought we hurled absolutely brilliantly.

“We hurled really well into the breeze, took a few scores, got it back to a point. Then we were hit with two absolute disasters of goals. It never should have happened.

“We talked at half time, we didn’t panic and we never really did. We couldn’t find any momentum.”

It leaves the Derry mindset a simple one this week. No ifs. No buts. It’s win in Mullingar or bust.

McGarvey is in his fourth season and the turnaround in the players has left him building a new team year on year. During his tenure, he has handed out a staggering 38 debuts and has used 63 players in all.

“That’s massively disappointing and if we go down it’s an absolute disaster,” McGarvey added. “It’d be an absolute disaster. It’s on us. You’ve got to get results on the pitch and so far, we haven’t. Westmeath will be a massive challenge but we have to go there and we have to give it a go.”