Dream come through for St Naul's goalkeeper Gavin Mulreany

The Master of Calm admitted that it was a nervous few hours before Sunday’s Ulster semi-final between Donegal and Derry. Gavin Mulreany didn’t reveal exactly when he knew that he would be starting his first championship game but he says it was made close to the game.

The St Naul’s man had come on after 56 minutes in the win over Derry the previous week when Shaun Patton was injured and although listed as No 16 for Sunday, when the team announcement was made, Mulreany was listed as starting between the posts.

“The decision was made close to the game. We had to see how Shaun (Patton) was. It was a decision that had to be made and unfortunately for Shaun he didn’t get over the line.”

It was something that Mulreany had been looking forward to. “For me it was something you would dream of when you were young. You’re coming to all these games. Shaun has played plenty of semi-finals. I was very excited but you could see I was a wee bit nervous on a few kicks, but listen, we settled.”

He did admit there was a panicky moment when he came off his line early on to try and cut out a Tyrone attack but gave away a foul.

“Just, maybe a wee bit erratic. I thought with the slippy surface it might have slipped past but I suppose when I was there I had to commit to it.”

But overall he was happy with his game and his kick-outs. “Maybe one in the second half, I kinda slipped into it and conceded a point off it and it was at a crucial time too.

“They didn’t press on all of them but we still had to get the kick-outs away and we had to work the ball forward, maybe not from just the kick, but when we received the ball we had a lot of work to do from there.”

There was a moment near the end when he had the ball in his hands a couple of metres outside the Tyrone ‘45’ for a free kick, which could have resulted in all three St Naul’s men on the starting team also getting on the scoresheet (as they did against Cork in the league).

But with play stopped for an injury, Ryan McHugh took control of the situation and opted to keep possession.

“That was game management and you have to do that too. It’s their experience too,” said Mulreany, who added: “I have no problem hitting them if I’m needed.”

The starting No 1 was full of praise for his full-back line and his target man at midfield Jason McGee.

“They are two very good man markers. Listen, Brendan (McCole) has been around the block a long time. He’s come a long way too. Mark Curran has too, I played minor with Mark. They are getting better all the time too

“Jason McGee is a big man. He’s had a lot of ups and downs too with injuries. Thankfully, we have been able to keep him on the field. He’s what we need and he came up with a few points at crucial times too.”

From his goalkeeping position, Mulreany says the experienced players in front of him showed great composure when needed in the closing stages.

“There was no stage of panic. A lot of boys have experience in those situations and you can see they’re keeping the head, it runs through the team.”

When it was put to him that Calm is Gavin’s middle name, he laughed: “Maybe not today. We have two big weeks now to get everyone back. Hopefully we can beat Armagh now in two weeks’ time,” said Mulreany.