Malachy O'Rourke celebrates Glen third Derry senior title

Derry Journal

Glen manager Malachy O'Rourke gives his thoughts after his team secured a hat-trick of Derry senior titles by defeating Magherafelt in Celtic Park.

Transcript

00:00 Margie, three in a row, is it as special as the first one?

00:03 It is, surely. It's a very special field today because three in a row in any county is hard

00:08 to do and in Derry it is really hard to do. So we knew coming in today that we were going

00:12 to have to put in a big performance. Mara felt we were going very well. I suppose at

00:16 half time we weren't really getting the performance we would have wanted and we knew that we had

00:19 to up the levels all around the field in the second half and just delighted we were able

00:23 to do that and the boys showed brilliant courage, great character and leadership and the ability

00:29 to play football and that's what took us through.

00:32 Just like in the semi-final, was that sort of third quarter, the start to the second

00:34 half that really took the game for you?

00:36 Yes, that's right. Even though we played with the win in the first half, I suppose we didn't

00:42 make the best use of possession at times and then it gave them the chance to win their

00:47 kick-outs and they were able to keep possession for a long period of time and then usually

00:51 at the end of it they were able to get a runner coming through and get through gaps and get

00:54 a couple of scores. I think they were maybe 5-2 or 5-3 up at one stage. So a couple of

00:58 points we got towards the end of the half were probably important for us and we just

01:02 knew in the second half, even though we were playing against a bit of a win, that we had

01:05 to be much better and delighted we were able to do that.

01:07 You were telling me the goal was a huge score in that sense but it says a lot about you

01:11 that you can sort of go through the gears a wee bit when you're tasked in the second

01:14 half of matches.

01:15 Yes, I suppose it's easy saying that now but look, that's the thing and the boys have been

01:20 able to respond and you just hope that that's there when you need it and on the first half

01:27 of the day the performance was ok but we knew that we had to be better in the second half

01:32 and as you say it's great that the boys are able to lift it like that and it definitely

01:36 was needed today and we got it.

01:37 Is it quite strange when you have boys like us in the media nearly giving you the championship

01:41 before a ball is kicked? There's that danger where you can take your eye off the ball but

01:45 the boys have shown that you don't win 3-0 by accident.

01:48 No, that's it. To be honest with you we don't really pass any marks on what's going on in

01:53 the media or what's going on in the bookies or anything else because since we've been

01:58 here three years ago I think we've been favourite for every single game. We've been really hot

02:01 favourites in a lot of them. The O's coming in today we would have felt didn't really

02:05 reflect the two teams' performance coming into the game and so on but we don't really

02:09 pass much remarks on that. It's just about trying to get the best possible performance.

02:13 We feel that if we get that we'll not be far away and I'm just glad that's the way it's

02:17 transcribed today.

02:18 And now Kjærgen again in Ulster, it's not an easy opening is it?

02:21 No, certainly not. We know we played them last year and Kjærgen probably would have

02:26 felt they were unlucky not to win the game and they were on the day. So we know it's

02:31 going to be a massive challenge again and all those club games are, you never get an

02:36 easy one and that's why it's such a brilliant competition. But look it, we'll enjoy it a

02:40 couple of days now and we'll try and get ready for it and know that it's going to take another

02:44 massive performance.

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