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

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Next, we played Monaghan in Castleblayney and after being nine points ahead at half time, Monaghan came storming back into it, needing Declan Bateson to score us a goal in the dying seconds to draw the game. We beat them in the replay in Derry city by seven points.

When the semi-final draw threw up Down, boys we were chomping at the bit. The big meeting at Casement Park – that was the one we wanted, the big clash everyone was waiting on. The All-Ireland and Ulster champions of Down and the National League champions of Derry. Derry had been unbeaten since the previous year’s Championship defeat to Down and we approached the game like it was an Ulster Final.

A tremendous amount of work was being put in by the players and management. We were training three nights a week and the management team met another night, talking about the games and how the players performed. Everyone knew where we wanted to go and we were pulling in the one direction.

Pete McGrath’s men had gone to Croke Park in ’91 and smashed any notion that Ulster teams were there just for a day out. If they could do it then we were a stone’s throw from it and we intended to give a definite answer that day in Casement Park.