Derry are hoping to pick up their first win of their Christy Ring Cup campaign, when they host Sligo at Owenbeg on Sunday.
Johnny McGarvey’s side led Tyrone by eight points at half-time, but the Red Hand fought back to claim a draw. Reflecting on that result, McGarvey said that the management weren’t happy with the team’s performance.
“I don’t particularly look at it in terms of whether we dropped a point, or we earned one,” he said.
“No matter what the result was last week, we were always going to have to win the match against Sligo anyway. In terms of the Christy Ring, it doesn’t make a huge amount of difference to the table.
“However, we weren’t happy with the performance. We’re disappointed with what we showed in the second half. We didn’t reach the levels that we have been training to reach.
“Tyrone played very well, and they dug in, we weren’t happy with our own performance.”
Now, the onus is on the players to provide a reaction this weekend, and McGarvey says that they will need little motivation, as they know themselves that they weren’t firing on all cylinders.
“I don’t think there is much you need to say to them as a management team; they’ll know themselves (they weren’t good enough),” he said.
“We still had loads of chances. Of 44 shots, we scored 22 times, so it’s a case of us needing to up our efficiency rate significantly.”
Derry will play three of four remaining games at home, and whilst all home games will be important, McGarvey believes that Sunday’s clash is ‘absolutely vital’.
“I think that the competition is very evenly matched; the home games are going to be key,” said the Derry boss.
“Sligo have beaten London, and we would expect Meath to beat London too, so if Sligo were to beat us at the weekend, we could find ourselves three points behind with only three matches left.
“Every match is important, but we would rate this Sligo match as absolutely vital.”
Sligo had a poor league campaign and were relegated from Division 2B. However, they began their championship campaign with a 2-20 to 1-20 win over London last weekend.
Derry are certain to be without Corey O’Reilly due to injury, whilst Sean Francis Quinn is a doubt, with a hamstring strain.
“I suppose they went fairly poorly in Division 2B this year, but they responded by going and beating London at the weekend,” said McGarvey, of Sligo.
“We’ll be expecting a battle; they’ll be organised, and they have some very good players there. But for us, we just have to focus on ourselves and make sure that we get the performance levels right.”
