‘Dasher’ happy to have busy schedule with Errigal

JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTER-FINAL

THREE draining Championship matches on three successive weekends may give a team cause to gripe but you won’t see Errigal Ciaran Thirds complaining, experienced defender Damien McDermott insists.

‘Dasher’ as he is popularly known played a starring role as his team edged out Division 3B league champions Derrytresk by a single point in last Saturday’s Junior first round replay at Carrickmore.

The 0-16 to 3-6 scoreline really doesn’t reflect Errigal’s overall supremacy on the day, with the ‘Hill’ staging a last gasp revival which yielded a quick fire 1-3 to reel in a sizeable deficit.

The victors have little time to savour the outcome as they are immediately pitched straight back into Championship action this Sunday when they tackle Drumragh in the quarter-finals. McDermott though would have it no other way.

“We have Drumragh now who are seasoned Championship campaigners. We just have the week turnaround but we won’t complain. Look how many teams in Tyrone would love to have a Championship match to look forward to next weekend.

“There is a great buzz in the camp with the mixture of older and younger boys and to have a shot now at the quarter-finals is brilliant.”

Senan Canavan, Davy Harte and Niall McCartan spearheaded Errigal’s attack against Derrytresk but across the board ‘Dasher’ was delighted at how they rode out the storm when the going got tough in those fraught closing stages.

“It was a very tough game which is what we expected. I was very impressed again with how our young boys did. You dream of these days coming to a venue like Carrickmore to play in the Championship.

“I was so pleased the way our boys stood up to the challenge in the last five or ten minutes. Derrytresk didn’t win the league for nothing. We knew they were going to come at us again and they had a big spell towards the very end but thankfully we just hung on.

“We dug deep and that is what Championship games are all about. Some time tactics go out the window and it’s all about knuckling down and battling to get over the line.”

While inevitably this particular batch of Errigal players live in the shadows of their stellar senior side which reached the All-Ireland Final last year, McDermott insists that they put in just as much hard work.

“We run the Juniors completely separate from the Seniors and the effort put in by everyone, management and players is unbelievable.

“It can be tough and while we won a few league games this year to win a Championship match like this is unbelievable.”