Cassidy not drawn on future after Derry loss

Derry manager Damien Cassidy last night refused to speculate on his future in the wake of his side's extra-time defeat by Donegal in the third round of the SFC qualifiers in Ballybofey.

"It's a bit too early…Give me a bit more time to reflect on it. I don't think it's the best time to make a judgement on how the season has gone," Cassidy said, when asked about how his first year in management had gone.

The Bellaghy clubman was gutted with the loss and felt his Oak Leaf side deserved more from the game.

"I feel that we didn't deserve to lose that game by any stretch of the imagination. Donegal got 2-13 and we scored more heavily than them.

"At the same time there was a period there in extra-time when Donegal missed three or four scoring opportunities that they could have stretched their lead as well. It was a really bad way to lose a game."

Cassidy added that with just one week of a turnaround from last weekend's win against Monaghan, it was always going to be tough for his side.

"Players know this - there is no surprise in this. We knew we were coming up to play a tough game against Donegal and we expected a tough game from them," he said.

"We essentially lost the game in the first 20 minutes - us not being able to dictate the game and the pace we wanted to play at.

"We were lacking in intensity in comparison to Donegal. That subsequently set the tone for the rest of the game in that we were chasing the lead and chasing the scores that they were getting.

"Our players responded magnificently in the second half. We were five down and we came back to draw and the same in extra-time. So the spirit is clearly there for all to see.

"What we have to do is over a period of reflection, see the areas we have to try and develop for next season. At the same time it's still hard to take."

In contrast, Donegal manager John Joe Doherty felt his side had nothing to lose coming into the game.

As the Ulster final gets underway today, memories will come flooding back of the loss to Antrim earlier in the Ulster Championship.

"When you see the way the whole thing has panned out. Antrim came here and were deserving winners and likewise (tonight), we were deserving winners," Doherty explained.

"That's the way it goes. We will all the time be thinking would we have got to an Ulster final and could we have shocked Tyrone.

"We will just have to move on from that and tonight was all about restoring a bit of pride in the jersey and we've done that.

"We deserved the criticism we got and there is no point in saying otherwise.

"But we had a good night's training Tuesday night and I saw it in some of the boys' eyes that maybe we were a bit quiet in ourselves leading up to that and I really felt there was a big match in us."