By Michael McMullan

DERRY manager Mickey Harte said his players are “in a bubble” and haven’t been affected by the criticism directed at the camp.

Speaking after the Oakleafers’ dramatic penalty shootout win over Mayo on Saturday in Castlebar, Harte also accepted their fate of playing three championship games in two weeks after not finishing top of their group.

“People can say what they want about them,” Harte said of his players.

“They’re big enough now to know that they’re in it for each other, they work for each other and that they’re doing it for the real supporters of Derry. The snipers will do what they do.

“They’ll only wait until the next time when there’s an opportunity to snipe and they’ll snipe again. This doesn’t put them away; it just puts them down for a few days anyway.”

Derry put in their best championship performance of the season with a 0-6 to 0-3 interval lead in Castlebar showing signs of the form that shot them to a league title.

It took a later Chrissy McKaigue point to force extra time with Jordan Flynn’s second point at the end of extra-time taking the tie to penalties.

“Well look it was a serious battle, there was a lot of passion from both sides, a lot of good football, a lot of mistakes because the pressure was put on,” Harte said of Saturday’s blockbuster.

“When you had the ball, you had to be very careful with it or somebody was going to take it off you.

“Scores were at a premium. I think we started the game very well and could have been in a better position than we were.

“Then they came back at us. I’d say we won the first half in normal time and extra-time and they came back and took over the second half in both instances.”

Derry’s win leaves them facing a third high-pressure championship encounter in two weeks.

The extra-time, the knocks and the penalties will leave this week very much recovery mode ahead of their Croke Park quarter-final.

“Look at that’s the price you pay for not being in the pole position, we all know that,” Harte said, referring to not topping the group to avoid having a preliminary quarter-final.

“The price you pay also is that you have to go to the other team for a home venue in the preliminary one.

“So these are the prices you have to pay, so you have to deal with that. Look at whatever, six or seven days, I don’t know when it’ll be. It’ll not be easy to recover from that, but still in all, I’d rather be thinking about recovering than thinking goodbye until January.”