Derry hurling manager Johnny McGarvey reacts to Oak Leafers securing their Division Two status against Donegal

Derry hurling manager Johnny McGarvey reacts to Oak Leafers securing their Division Two status with victory against Donegal in O'Donnell Park.

Transcript

00:00Johnny, he's come here needing a big, big performance and he's got exactly that.

00:05100%, we got exactly what we wanted from start to finish. Michael said through the week,

00:11it was going to take that. We're under no illusions, I think Donegal has performed well

00:15and they performed poorly today but we were excellent. We were at it from the very, very

00:19start. It was a war against me and look, I suppose in everything, timing is everything.

00:25We've timed it to absolute perfection in this league to save ourselves because we needed

00:29to. He's come into that game and everything was on the line, Johnny. Relegation would

00:33have been a big blow. It's something we didn't really dwell a while on but 100%, given the

00:39effort we put into getting into this league and then how badly we performed in the first

00:44couple of games of it, it would have been a serious blow to everything we've tried to

00:48do here. But look, we came here today, we had to lay it all on the line and we did.

00:54I thought we were amazing. That first half was definitely the platform for Johnny. You

00:59had, on a day where you probably needed leaders, you had 10-11 boys putting their hands up

01:02some superb performances. Aye, look, I think maybe in the downside of losing them a couple

01:09of games quite heavily, you sort of find out a wee bit about yourself probably as players

01:13and probably as about management and you find leaders. When they're not there, somebody

01:17has to step up and maybe it didn't look like that but we never walted at training. Our

01:22attitude didn't go down. It would have been very easy after the down, especially the Kerry

01:26match to throw the head up and huff about it but we didn't. We went back at it and we

01:30worked even harder and look, we got a result out the other day. And it's exactly this sort

01:35of run now, you were excellent against Meath, you called it maybe the best performance on

01:39the weekend. You'll probably have to rethink that best performance. I think possibly that

01:42performance in the first half because the Meath match in the second half maybe, I wouldn't

01:46say petered out but we had done enough to win the match whereas in that second half

01:51after 7 or 8 minutes of it, we were the team that pushed on and really drove home. So now,

01:58look, we're delighted. Great momentum to go into the Kirstie ring now. 100%. Unquestionably,

02:04we've seen all Donegal's matches, that's their worst performance of the season. No way will

02:09it be like that in Celtic Park in three weeks' time. You wouldn't expect it to be and you

02:14see them sort of results happen all the time. Their team gets a big one like that and they

02:17go back a few weeks later to play that team again and all of a sudden it's very, very

02:20different. That's the way we're going to prepare for it. That's the first part of our

02:24season done. We have secured Division 2 for next season. We're absolutely over the moon

02:30but our season was about trying to win the Kirstie ring and every team that's in it will

02:34be the same, including Donegal. So when they come to Celtic Park in three weeks' time,

02:39I expect it to be very, very, very different. But look, we plan to up it again from Tuesday

02:44night on. There's no resting on the loyals here. There's no going out and celebrating,

02:50just staying up with Division 2. Our attention is turning now tomorrow morning to get them

02:53very prepared for the Kirstie ring.