Great success is often preceded by dark days and Conor Glass feels the pain of their narrow loss to Donegal last year has inspired the Oak Leafers to bigger and better things.
Armagh lost out to Galway in the Qualifiers prior to their All-Ireland success in 2002. The year Armagh made their breakthrough, Tyrone suffered a shock loss to Sligo in the back-door before beating their rivals in the 2003 All-Ireland final.
The Jim McGuinness era in Donegal followed their humbling 2-14 to 0-11 defeat to Armagh in Crossmaglen, a loss which prompted John Joe Doherty to step down with McGuinness taking over.
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Current Derry boss Rory Gallagher was Donegal’s assistant manager when they then defeated Derry in the Ulster final in 2011 and they’d retain their provincial crown a year later before going on to win the All-Ireland title.
They’ve a long way to go to emulate the achievements of their Ulster neighbours, but Glass believes Derry’s 0-16 to 0-15 loss in Ballybofey is a key milestone in the upward trajectory of the Oak Leaf County.
“It was a learning experience up in Ballybofey that day,” remarked Glass.
“That was the main game for this group of players - it was our first big Championship game playing together. We put in a good performance, but we didn’t get over the line.
“It was a massive learning curve for the likes of Ethan Doherty, Paul Cassidy, men who are now stalwarts of this team.
“We bounced back from it well and it did us the world of good this year.
“We’ve trained our asses off over the last year and a half with Rory Gallagher and, thankfully, the reward is starting to come now.
“We are looking forward to coming up against Donegal in the Ulster Final.
“We obviously had a great battle with them last year so it will be good to get another crack at them.”
A few hundred Derry fans entered the pitch at Healy Park when Rory Gallagher’s men defeated the All-Ireland champions Tyrone by 11 points on their home patch at the beginning of the month.
A couple of thousand swarmed on to the pitch at the Athletic Grounds when Derry defeated Monaghan by four points to book their place in Sunday’s Ulster Final.
With the provincial decider heading for a sell-out, the scenes of jubilation if Derry win their first Ulster title since 1998 will surpass what’s been witnessed in Omagh or Armagh.
The Derry senior footballers have endured many tough moments in recent times and Glass says the entire county will enjoy the build-up to Sunday’s decider against Donegal having already defeated two Division One sides to reach the final.
“That’s the way you want to do it - we’ve got the hardest route this year,” said Glass.
“It is probably a good thing for this group of players that there is a short turnaround to the Ulster Final so we don’t get caught up in the occasion too much.
“We are still going to look forward to it. It is great to be heading back to play in Clones with the chance to win some silverware for Derry.
“We’ve been working hard for the last 18, 20 months - we feel it is well-deserved.”
The big challenge for Gallagher’s men heading into their clash with Monaghan was to back up their incredible showing from their quarter-final victory over Tyrone.
Seamus McEnaney’s men were seven points down at the break at the Athletic Grounds following goals from Gareth McKinless and Benny Heron.
The Farneymen rallied well in the third quarter and reduced the deficit to three points midway through the second half before Heron’s second goal helped close the game out.
“It was quite hard to come down from such a high against Tyrone,” added the Glen midfielder.
“The leaders of our team, the likes of Chrissy (McKaigue), (Brendan) Rogers and Rory (Gallagher) helped steer us in the right direction and we didn’t get carried away.
“The first week back, we were into the same kind of preparation we had for the Tyrone game and it came off.
“It was very close towards the end, but we came out on the right side of the game.
“That’s Monaghan - that’s what they’ve been doing over the last number of years. They are a quality side.
“We were seven points up at one stage, but we knew they would hit a purple patch. We got our third goal to give us a bit of a cushion. Credit to Monaghan, they’ve been contenders for Ulster titles and All-Irelands over the last five or six years.
“That’s not Monaghan gone either, they’ll give the Qualifiers a good rattle.”
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