Armagh hold no fear for Derry’s O’Kane

LAST June, Gerard O’Kane jumped on a bus in Glenullin to broaden his football horizons.

The route that day took him westwards, all the way to Ballybofey, where he clicked through the turnstiles to watch his first Ulster Championship match that didn’t involve Derry since his days as a minor at the turn of the century.

It was his clubmate, Liam Bradley, ‘the Baker’, who had lured him and a host of others from the village onto the terraces at MacCumhaill Park that Sunday where Antrim were hoping to spring a surprise on their hosts.

“It was a refreshing experience,” says the Derry defender. “In Ballybofey it was 80% Donegal supporters and only 20% Antrim.

“I was just sitting back taking the whole thing in wondering if this is what it is like for a Derry fan to watch a match.

“I could see how intense and caught up all the supporters were getting around me. I suppose I was sitting there calmly. I was showing no allegiance to any team in case it came back to bite me later in the summer.”

It didn’t. Any chance O’Kane had of facing Bradley’s charges evaporated with an eight-point defeat to Tyrone in Casement Park seven days later and the defeat was even more comprehensive and crushing than the margin would suggest.

Derry’s litany of championship woes is getting old by now, even to the most casual observer of the game in Ulster.

Five consecutive defeats in provincial semi-finals tell their own tale and yet O’Kane speaks with the confidence of a man untainted by setbacks.

He is also refreshingly candid ahead of tomorrow’s meeting with Armagh in Celtic Park when the sides will cut the ribbon on the latest edition in the race for an Anglo-Celt Cup which Derry last lifted a dozen years ago.

“I could stand here and give the old party line that the pressure is on Armagh, that they are the Division Two champions. You carry form into the championship and Armagh’s form of late has been very good.

“Ours has been patchy but in the last two or three league games it picked up a bit again.

“We have home advantage as well but when you are talking about a team that has played in Croke Park, I am not sure if Celtic Park will be that daunting for them. We are looking forward to it.

“I could tell you that Armagh should be favourites but I think we have a good chance ourselves.”

He isn’t alone.

Though Derry and Armagh swapped divisions some weeks ago, Damien Cassidy has already rubbished the significance of skirmishes fought up to now and O’Kane is of the belief that performances were more encouraging than the results would suggest.

“Maybe the tables have turned. We went through very good leagues in the last couple of years but we were hit with a spate of injuries in our last couple of league games when fellows started playing club football.

“This year that has been turned on its head.

“We had a pretty disappointing league but all around us injuries appear to be clearing up now.”

Armagh will test just how far they have come since the NFL.

O’Kane has played against most of Paddy O’Rourke’s side by now, at university and on the county stage, and he is braced for their ability to break in waves from the half-back line and penchant for servicing Stevie McDonnell with long, accurate balls.

Marking McDonnell is sure to be an onerous task tomorrow and, though O’Kane isn’t listed to start in the dangerman’s vicinity, he would have little hesitation in volunteering for such a hazardous mission should the occasion demand it of him.

“If Damien says hands up, ‘who wants to mark Steven?’ mine will be the first one up but I would say that there would be four or five other hands in the air, knowing that it is championship football.

“You have to embrace the challenge, and more importantly, you have to look forward to it.

“If you are nervous and scared about it, you will go out and play that way, whereas you have to really enjoy it and embrace it.

“If ever someone mentions Armagh to me now, whether it is Stevie or whoever, I tend to break into a wee smile because I am just looking forward to it.

“You have to be very confident, not only in your own ability but in your team’s ability. Realistically you have to take the game to the other team and if you sit back and try and play a game of chess, you always get caught on the hop.

“You really have to embrace it and enjoy it. That’s the way you play.”