Brendan Doherty very proud of his charges despite derby defeat

In their first meeting in Division 1 in 22 years and before a massive crowd, Naomh Columba lost out to a last minute Ciaran McGinley point which sent Kilcar home with the spoils on Sunday (0-11 to 2-4).

But there was plenty to be positive about for Naomh Columba and manager, Brendan Doherty, was really proud of the way his team performed.

"Definitely very, very proud. I think it has been coming this last two games against Gaoth Dobhair and St Eunan's. Listen, the local  derby was always on our radar as well, because of where it is and what not. 

"Very, very happy with the performance of the lads. Look, costly errors caught us in the end. Kilcar were far cuter than us in them situations too. But at the same time, a draw would have probably have been a fair result but you have to lick your wounds and move on and that's what we'll do.”

It has been a difficult start to life back in Division 1 for Naomh Columba as they have met three big teams in Gaoth Dobhair, St Eunan’s and Kilcar.

"We have played three of the four big teams and it's a learning curve for us the whole way along. We take huge positives out of the game, but it's only natural for the lads and for myself that we're disappointed we didn't get anything out of it.

"We know what we were up against in Kilcar. Kilcar are probably one of the best teams in the county, as you say we're coming from Division 2. The gap between ourselves and Kilcar was so wide all them years ago. We're closing the gap on all them big teams now and that's where we want to be.

"You see the crowds here. There was a great buzz here all week and I'm sure it was the same out in Kilcar. It's great to see,” said Doherty.

The Naomh Columba manager wasn’t overly happy with the decisions of the referee in the final minutes which included the referee overruling the umpire to give the winning point.

"I'm not sure he had to do it, but he did anyway," says Doherty. "Look, it's the small margins here. We had a point up here we thought we had and it went down the other end and they thought they had. They got theirs but we didn't get ours.

"But look, the referee is there to do a job and Enda (McFeely) refereed as fairly as he could, but I'm sure a lot of others thought differently.”

One of the positives for Doherty was the return to action of Christopher Byrne and he notched both goals for the home side.

"Christopher was out all last year and he's just coming back. He'll offer a lot to us going forward as well.”

But while they scored two goals, they had two other good goal chances as well, one in the first attack and another late in the second half.

"When you are playing the top teams you have to take your chances and that's one of the learnings we will take from today.”

But Doherty agreed that it was the team’s best performance of the season so far.

"Without a shadow of a doubt, but there is still a long way to go until the end of July. We have a lot of teams to play before the end of the year. We needed a reaction today; we're free next weekend and we have MacCumhaill's in two weeks' time so we know what we have to do," says Doherty.