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