By Michael McMullan

MAGHERAFELT joint manager Brian McGuckin is happy to see depth developing in their squad after picking up their second win of the championship.

Derry duo Conor McCluskey and Odhrán Lynch sat out their win over Lavey with Cormac Murphy only coming off the bench on his return from injury.

McGuckin, who manages the side alongside Richard Thornton, was also pleased with his side found a way to win after Lavey pulled themselves back from six points down with the breeze at their back.

“We were definitely really, really happy with our first half performance,” McGuckin said, also pointing to the half-time message of pushing on after leading by six points.

“When Lavey came out at the start the second half…they were a much better team. They kicked 1-3 without replay, drew level and I thought that we showed a serious amount of character then to get back to where we needed to be.”

While wanting to play a brand of football on their own terms and put daylight between the teams, McGuckin was “delighted” to get a victory and hailed the Rossa character in the last 10 minutes.

“First and foremost, we want to create a winning culture and that was vital because what it means now is that you’re pulling away from certain teams and you’re securing your quarter final spot,” said McGuckin.

His side now prepare for a top of the table clash with Newbridge in a championship structure of the top four teams, from two groups of six, advancing to the quarter-final.

Conor McCluskey is currently on the way back after a groin operation that hampered him during Derry’s season while Odhrán Lynch sat out the game after coming off at half-time in their win over Steelstown.

His deputy, minor All-Ireland winning goalkeeper Karl Campbell, made a vital save in the final quarter on his first championship start.

For McGuckin, getting more players exposed to action is an important ingredient for what a championship challenge needs.

“We’re now starting to see what our extended squad can do,” he said. “We feel that we’re now building a squad that can contest with anybody and hopefully go as far as we can.”

“With ‘Clucky’ (Conor McCluskey), the operation went well and he’s now into rehab so we’ll just have to see how he responds to that, but we’d like to have him back in some stage this year,” McGuckin said before confirming that Lynch’s injury was “nothing major” and he did take part in the warmup.

“We would hope that he’d be back in contention for Newbridge. He could probably have played today, but we decided against him.”

McGuckin also expects to see Shea McGuckin back training this week after an infection in his has cleared. They now face Newbridge before finishing the group phase against Loup and Ballinascreen.

Check out last weekend’s review show below…