Christy Ring draw with Tyrone changes nothing for "disappointed" Derry boss McGarvey

Derry looked in complete control of the opening round tie when they led by 1-11 to 0-6 at half-time, an early goal from the excellent John Mullan setting them on their way in a game they were expected to win. However a vastly improved Tyrone second half display, coupled with some poor misses by the Oak Leafers contrived to bring the hosts back into the game. Indeed Tyrone moved two as the game entered injury time clear thanks to Sean Duffin and Lorcan Devlin only for Mullan twice to dragged Derry level before Padraig Neilis looked to have won it for McGarvey's men.

There was still time however for Duffin, who finished with 0-4, to ensure parity, the Tyrone player taking advantage of the ample time and space he was afforded to send over a lovely equalising score to make it a frustrating afternoon in Healy Park.

"Tyrone played better stuff in the second half and, yes, they scored the equaliser with the last play but we weren't good enough, that is just the reality of it," admitted the Derry manager afterwards.

"I don't think we took our foot off the pedal as such, it was more a case of us just not taking our chances when we were totally dominant. We had 44 shots in the match and only got 22 scores which tells it's own story.

"It was disappointing that we should have killed the match. We had a great goal chance just before half-time to go 11 points up and had the first two shots of the second half, two easy shots to take us 10 up and we didn't. Then they scored four in a row and all of a sudden it was a battle.

"Look, when we got level in injury time we probably would have taken that given how the second half had gone and then Padhraig Neilis scores that absolute wonder point but we conceded what I thought was a soft score. It was a great strike but we allowed him too much room and he pinned it.

"We're very disappointed in ourselves, with the way we played second half. We gave them too much space, didn't press hard enough and to be fair, Tyrone missed very, very little."

Sunday's opening round also saw tight victories for Sligo and Meath over London and Mayo respectively, a fact McGarvey believes highlights how evenly matched most of the teams are.

"Realistically the result doesn't change anything for us in terms of the Christy Cup Cup," he added, "To get to the final I always felt we had to win four matches. We still have to win four matches. I suppose in five weeks it will show if this was a point won or a point lost but it felt like a point lost for us.

"I thought we had enough good chances to win the match. Fair play, Tyrone dug in and took their chances, they were more efficient than we were.

"We will probably take a bit of stick for the result but remember Tyrone went well in Division 2B. If you look at all the results between all six teams today, there's not going to be a whole lot in this competition. With the way the opening games have gone, we'll take one point and move on.

"That 2-20 seemed to be the bracket that was winning matches so, look, we're very disappointed to concede 2-20. We became too loose in the second half. If you want to be winning championship matches you cannot concede 2-20. Had we been offered scoring 2-20 before throw in I'd say that total would have won the match.

"Having said that, we left serious serious chances out there; good goal chances, a mountain of point chances and there's no excuse for it. It was just poor execution. We should have scored heavier than what we did."

The Oak Leafers welcome Sligo to Owenbeg next weekend for their second game, one McGarvey admits will be another tough test.

"Every match was always going to be must win but I genuinely think it is going to be very, very tight. Sligo are coming to Owenbeg and we have to get a result, we are under no illusion about that, but had we beaten Tyrone we would still have had to beat Sligo.

"If you win the other four matches you still go through. You may not even have to win them all, that's the nature of this competition with everybody capable of beating everybody.

"And we have positives from today as well. John Mullan scored 1-07 from play and if you look over the course of the championship there'll not be too many players do that from play. He had a great game, so we had plenty of positives but we're still disappointed."

Tyrone scorers: Dermot Begley 0-6, Lorcan Devlin 1-3, Sean Og Grogan 1-2, Sean Duffin 0-4, Aidan Kelly 0-2, Fionn Devlin 0-1, Conor Grogan 0-1, Ruairi Slane 0-1.

Derry scorers: John Mullan 1-7, Cormac O’Doherty 1-3, Richie Mullan 0-2, Darragh McGilligan 0-2, Mark Craig 0-1, Eamon Conway 0-1, Paddy Kelly 0-1, James Friel 0-1, Paul Cleary 0-1, Padhraig Neilis 0-1.

Tyrone: Liam Dunphy, Sean Og Grogan, Ruairi Devlin, Fionn Devlin, Dean Rafferty Dermot Begley, Conal Devlin, Chris Kearns, Conor Grogan, Ruairi Slane, Sean Duffin, Bryan McGurk, Aidan Kelly, Rory Weir, Lorcan Devlin. (Subs) T Mullin for Weir; J Ferguson for F Devlin.

Derry: Oisin O’Doherty, Sean Francis Quinn, Mark Craig, Daire Kelly, Sean Cassidy, Meehaul McGrath Eamon Conway, Paddy Kelly Darragh McGilligan, Cormac O’Doherty, James Friel Segdae Melaugh, John Mullan, Paul Cleary. (Subs) R Mullan for Quinn, E Cassidy for Conway, C O Kane for Friel, P Neilis for Melaugh

Referee: James Clarke