Christy Ring Cup Round Four
Derry v London
Sunday, Owenbeg, 12pm

By Shaun Casey

DERRY hope to bounce back from a 15-point loss to Kildare when they host London on Sunday afternoon.

Their manager, Dominic McKinley, knows his side face a tough challenge and now must win their remaining two games to reach the final.

“What you have is, you have an inconsistency in their (London’s) results. Some days when they have their team and players, they could give you a right good game and put you to the pin of your collar,” he said.

“We don’t know what they’re bringing, we need to make sure we’re right. We need to win our last two games to have any chance of getting to the final.”

Three games in three weeks was tough going and Derry spent their free weekend trying to get some of their injured personnel back on the pitch.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s Derry or Limerick or Offaly, injuries are key to success and how you manage them and managing players through it to get the best out of them on the important days.

“Some days you just can’t risk players. You have to give other players opportunities. It’s been a busy time for us all, particularly physios and doctors, looking after the players. To be honest they’re probably busier than any of us.

“We’re improving slightly, every day but you never like to say that because then something else comes along. We’d love to have a full hand someday; it’s going to be hard to ever have a full hand to be honest.

“Sean Kelly is still troubled with his back, and he started with us very well at the start of the year. Sean ‘Tad’ (Cassidy) is still out and it’s a situation with his inner groin and it’s not mending, Sean hasn’t played all year for us and he’s what I would call a pro, a good pro.

“He’s been about for a long time and a very bad miss. Cormac O’Doherty is nursing a shoulder injury, so he’ll probably monitor that until the end of the campaign. So, all these wee things add up, but we’re doing alright.”

That Kildare game was hugely disappointing. Trailing by just one at the break, Derry didn’t show up after the turnaround and the second half was all one-sided.

“We just couldn’t find that wee bit extra in the second half and it was disappointing for us all because they ran up quite a big score. We seemed to not compete during that latter period which is disappointing and something we need to look at as well.

“I think the biggest disappointment is giving up. We just gave up and let them run up a score and weren’t contesting. We need to find the reason for that.

“And sometimes it’s very, very hard. I always say there’s people getting paid £300,000 a week and they give up, if you watch the Premier League at the weekend. It’s very hard, you’ve just got to tweak wee pieces of it and hope you’re doing the right things.

“The head’s very important, making sure the mindset is right or the player’s head and maybe that weekend it wasn’t and that’s something we need to work on together and make sure it’s right the next day.”

READ MORE – Derry’s win over Tyrone. Click here…