Derry at a disadvantage last year – McGuckin

Derry's Kevin McGuckin tackling Kildare's James Kavanagh

Kevin McGuckin spoke to Gaelic Life last week ahead of the Derry Donegal game. During the interview he spoke about last year’s final and the heartache of losing. However, he also suggested that Derry didn’t have enough time to prepare for the Qualifier game a week later:

The Oak Leaf men went into the game seeking a first Ulster title win since 1998. Eleven months on and McGuckin still finds the loss hard to stomach, and he believes that the hurt of missing out last year to Donegal will only add to the fire in the bellies of the Derry players as they prepare to head to Ballybofey.

“Getting beat in any game is tough, but to get beat in an Ulster final made it ten times worse. I’m a bad loser at the best of times, but especially losing in an Ulster final and then knowing that you were going to be out so quick again in the qualifiers.

“Six days later gave us no chance at all, we were always going to be really up against it. It took all of that week to get our heads up again, never mind get ourselves ready for Kildare.”

The full story is in the current issue of Gaelic Life, published on Thursday June 4. Buy your copy now in your local newsagent, or you can purchase the online version – for only 90p – by clicking here