THE man in black is back – and veteran goalkeeper Ryan McGeough admitted it was “a great feeling” to make his return between the sticks in Eoghan Rua’s dramatic Derry championship victory over Magherafelt on Sunday.
McGeough has been a stalwart of Sean McGoldrick’s side for much of the past 20 years, but hadn’t featured for the Portstewart men since the 2019 championship exit to Magherafelt after a back problem forced him out of last year’s campaign.
The 38-year-old has become chairman of the club in the time between, but insists he never lost the desire to get back out on the field - with McGeough making a smart early save from Shane Heavron, and providing a calming influence in the back line throughout.
“I hoped I’d be back – I’m not getting any younger or any thinner, so I wasn’t 100 per cent sure to be honest,” he laughs.
“I put my back out lifting a box at work at the start of the first lockdown, and when I went for an MRI it showed I have arthritis at the bottom of my spine, so they sort of advised me to stop doing whatever it was that was giving me it – probably goalkeeping!
“But what do you do? Especially after the last couple of years, being stuck in the house, you’re busting to get back out. I really went back to it for the craic as much as anything… to be honest I was probably looking more at next year because I wasn’t able to do too much.
“But in the last six to eight weeks it’s eased up a lot, and then Sean decided to throw me back in today. We knew if we performed there wouldn’t be more than a kick of a ball between us - the one thing you can’t do against Magherafelt is let them get ahead.
“If you do, they’ll filter back and kill the game, so I was probably a bit surprised we managed to get it back at the end of the second half after going two behind. We missed a couple, and at that point you’re thinking ‘this isn’t going to be our day’.
“Thankfully we pulled it out of the fire. It’s a great feeling being back out there, playing championship, especially on days like these.”
Magherafelt saw two second half efforts cannon back off McGeough’s crossbar – “thank God, that’s about as high as I can reach” – as they forced their way back into the game, but Eoghan Rua proved too strong in extra-time to set up a quarter-final showdown with defending champions Slaughtneil.
There can’t be too many players across Ireland balancing senior championship commitments with club chairman duties, but McGeough insists the load is made much lighter by the support system around the club.
“We’re very lucky with the committee we have - they’ve been there that long and there’s plenty of people more than happy to put their hands up and do the work.
“We got most of the stuff done at the start of the year, I’m not doing too much now because obviously I’ve been focused on this, but it’s actually been more enjoyable than I thought it would.
“Obviously playing is the main focus at the minute, and being out there today means I’ve played senior football across four decades now. I’ll retire once I make it to five in 2030.”
