Derry centre half-forward Barry McGoldrick says it’s vital that the Oak Leaf side build on their promising start to the National League.
By Chris McCann
sport@derrypost.com
Three wins from four games have left Paddy Crozier’s side primed for a shot at making the league final but as McGoldrick points out Derry have let knockout berths slip through their fingers in recent years.
“The last couple of years we have let play-off places get away from us after good starts. We have a big test coming up against Galway, they seem to be going rightly. In the last couple of league campaigns we have gotten off to good starts in league campaigns but slackened off, we don’t want that to happen this year,” he said.
Derry’s latest performance showed just why there is such optimism in the Oak Leaf county as they filleted Kildare in the opening 25 minutes at Celtic Park.
“We did well there, it was big game for us to respond to the Kerry defeat and hopefully we can push on now and try and get into the top two. We played some great football and most of the scores are coming from play which is a big help. The forwards are going well we looked sharp in the first 20 minutes but maybe slacked off for about 10 minutes and let them back into it but overall we were very happy with the first half. You shouldn’t really ever be 10 points up in a county match and it was bit ridiculous and subconsciously we maybe slackened off.
“We looked a bit sloppy in the spell just after half-time which isn’t good enough and a lot of their scores came off our mistakes but we picked it up near the end. It was good that we finished well. The last 15 minutes we were very good, there’s a lot of real ball players in our team and we’ll be in good form going into the next game against Galway.”
After an injury-hit season last year the Eoghan Rua man has looked sharp this season and is enjoying getting a consistent run in the team
“I did a good bit of work over the winter there, me and Mark Lynch and few others and it’s nice to get an extended run in the team and stay injury free.”
[...] Barry going for Gold [...]