Red Hands will learn and grow - O'Rourke

TYRONE returned from Celtic Park empty-handed, but manager Malachy O’Rourke believes his young team will learn and grow from a serious test against an experienced Derry side.

The Red Hands finished on the wrong side of a three points margin at the end of a thrilling Ulster derby, as the Oak Leafers finishing strongly to claim both National Football League Division Two points.

A big crowd at the Derry city venue was treated to a fast, open and expansive game as play swept from side to side, with each team having its spell of dominance.

But it was Ciaran Meenagh’s men who nailed the decisive scores that ended an 18-month winless run.

“That's what you expect but no we knew it was going to be a great challenge for us and it was,” said O’Rourke.

“We've had a number of lads coming back from injury, we've still got some fellas missing with a lot of inexperienced lads playing there.

“So from that point of view it's a great testing ground for everybody but obviously we need points as well and we would have liked to pick up a couple of points, but it wasn't to be.”

Tyrone were well placed at half-time, ahead by a point and a man up following a black card for a Derry player.

But they were frustrated by their opponents, who ran down the clock by holding possession as they awaited Lachlan Murray’s return to the action.

“It was disappointing. We had got ourselves in a good enough position at half-time, and then we had the black card as well in our favour, but Derry won the throw-up and they were able to eat into the clock, and we didn’t get the full value for it.

“It was disappointing that maybe our first four attacks of the second half we gave the ball away.

“It's hard when the opposition get their hands on the ball and they're moving it about it's sometimes hard to close it down and they get a free and then waste another wee bit of time.

“So it's not just as easy as pressing out and winning the ball and having control of the game.

“Derry in fairness controlled the ball fairly well but when we did get it we got it a few times in that passage of time as well and just didn't use it well enough to get the ball away cheaply and that cost us as well.”

It was a brilliant Ciaran Daly goal that helped the Red Hands to a 1-8 to 1-7 interval lead, but an equally spectacular Conor Glass strike five minutes earlier had given Derry a massive boost, their talisman driving through to hit the roof of the net for a score that made all the difference in the end.

It was a carbon copy of the Glen star’s strike in last year’s league opener, when Tyrone got the better of Derry in a Division One tie at O’Neills Healy Park.

“He finished exactly the same in the top corner. I don't know exactly but he seemed to get a lot of room going through so I don't know how that happened at the time.

“He certainly finished it well but again we responded well to it. We finished half well and we went in a point up.

“Again, there were too many things we didn't do well enough and that's the areas we have to improve.”

Skipper Brian Kennedy was forced out of the action midway through the second half, robbing the side of his physcail presence and experience at a crucial stage of the game.

O’Rourke added: “Overall I can’t fault the endeavour of the boys, they worked really hard all through the game, but Brian going off robbed us of a bit of physical presence around the middle of the field, which was vital as well, and we just came up a wee bit short.

“More than anything I just felt that there were a couple of times that we'd maybe made really good defensive work down to the bottom end and made last-ditch tackles, that sort of thing.

“Then we got dispossessed of the ball, brought up and then gave it away cheaply. That just really takes the momentum out of it a wee bit and you're giving the ball back.

“We worked really hard, we scrambled back different times. The boys got in great blocks because they had a few goal chances as well but it was just more going forward then.

“In the second half we didn't make the most of possession. I think we added on four points in the second half which isn't going to be good enough to win the game.”

There was one happy Tyrone man at Celtic Park, Derry manager Ciaran Meenagh guiding his side to a first win in 18 months.

“I'm relieved more than happy, to be honest with you. But I wasn't too down last week after we were beat, I don't intend getting too high after getting the result tonight. There'll be peaks and there'll be troughs,” said the Loughmacrory man.

“You couldn't have put your nose out the door this week, or certainly couldn't have lifted a phone, because some of the punditry, it's impossible to shield yourself from the outside. But I heard a lot of commentary to the effect that these lads are damaged, they're out of date, there are serious question marks about their character...

“So I suppose from that point of view it's good to prove a point, to be fit to get a result. But look, it's the 31st of January. We'll have some bad days throughout the rest of this year, and Tyrone will have some good days.

“So the overall context of the result isn't that overly important if you don't go and back it up the next day.”

Meenagh was pleased with the measure of control his side had in the first half, even though they went in at the break trailing by a point.

“The problem for us tonight was that these lads haven't won in such a long time. We're talking one game in normal time that they've won in the last 22 months.

“That's difficult and there almost that sense tonight, even when you were in the ascendancy, and we had a really good night on our own kickers in the first half, we still went in a point down at half-time and a man down.

“It was a very difficult place to be in that changing room at half-time, so it was a matter of putting it to the players. At the end of the day, they've had enough hurt and there's been enough ridicule and there's been enough question of their character out there. I think, in fairness to them, they answered that tonight anyway.”

And he saw many positives from his side’s performance as the bounced back from an opening day loss to Meath.

“I think it was standing on that sideline and in the pit of your stomach feeling that this is going to be the same old story again. I would say that's a reflection that the players had to be feeling that as well. They had to be feeling that pressure.

“To play so well, even as they did last year against Galway here or against Dublin and some of the big league games against Kerry and Galway as well, and still to leave yourself in a position that you had a sick feeling.

“To have that and everything seeming to be going against you but still to dig out a win because, at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is winning.

“There was goal chances there and, even when we do video work, I would still be encouraging the lads to go for the goals because that will eventually come.

“It's just the timing of that last pass, it's getting the ball away a wee bit cleaner. It's just the crispness and cleanness of the hands of the man that receives the ball.

“But I think these lads going forward now, getting that monkey off their back, those goal chances, we'll still be encouraging them to go for it. Same thing as two-point efforts and that. We'll be encouraging the lads to, any opportunity we get, we'll be encouraging them to go for it.”