Читать книгу The Boys of '93. Derry’s All-Ireland Kings онлайн

27 страница из 35

We’d won the first game of the league against Cavan in October but were beaten by Kildare and Antrim. We needed a win against Tyrone to have a chance of staying up.

I had moved home for that crucial game. Tyrone was never easy and with a young, up-and-coming team that included footballers of the class of Peter Canavan and Adrian Cush, who had already won at All-Ireland U21 level, we knew it was a tough one. But we got the victory at Celtic Park and another over Leitrim and then another at Longford where we hammered them off the park.

I called a meeting straight after the match in Slashers GAC in Longford. I had seen what I needed to see and it was time to introduce myself. My message was very simple: I am now in charge and if you want to be on this team, you have to train, you have to train when I tell you to train and you better put the county first. I knew we had the core of a good team in Derry. Some of the minors of ’83 had already stood out, boys like Damien Cassidy, Dermot McNicholl and Johnny McGurk, and of the 1985 U21s, Enda Gormley was one to watch.