'No excuses' for Paddy Tally as Derry make Ulster exit in Ballybofey

Derry manager Paddy Tally cited Shaun Patton’s penalty save as the key moment in the Ulster SFC preliminary round clash.

Patton made a double save to deny Shane McGuigan after only nine minutes and Donegal ran out 10-point winners, 1-25 to 1-15.

Tally, a late appointee to the Derry job towards the end of 2024. has been beset by injury and unavailability this year. At times in Ballybofey, Derry made a real go of it, but Donegal just had too much all round.

“We missed the penalty at a crucial time,” Tally said. 

“When you come to places like Donegal in their own patch, you have to get ahead of them. I don't mean that for definite, but if you had to get the penalty, it would give you a wee bit of a breather. It also lifted Donegal. It just lifted the stadium.”

While Dan Higgins netted for Derry in the first half, Daire Ó Baoill bagged a Donegal goal late in part one. Donegal pulled away again after an inspired Derry roared from the blocks for the start of the second half.

Tally said: “We brought it back to two. At that stage of the game, that's the time when you have to take control of it. And then Donegal went, I think, maybe ten points unanswered. I think it's something like that where we just couldn't get hands on the ball. It just wasn't good enough. At this level of football, this is where you're going to be found out. And we were found out today. 

“There's no excuses here. This is just part of what it is. The reality is you're going into Donegal to play one of the top teams. And you're just not at your strongest. And until we get our full squad together, it's going to be hard. That six-week window until the group stages, you won't think about it today or tomorrow.”

Derry, Division 1 champions in 2024, won Ulster in 2022 and 2023, but have regressed again.

Now, they have quite the wait until the All-Ireland group phase.

Tally said: “You have to regroup and get ready. Maybe this is a good thing for us. You never want to lose a challenging match, but maybe the position we're in with our squad, we have to get stronger. And this is an opportunity for us now to get work done and we have no excuses coming to the group stages.

“When we're playing well and we're on our game, we're very good and we've proved that today. Especially in the early stages of the first half and the early stages of the second half, we can match anybody. 

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“But we have to improve. We're just not maybe clinical enough at times and we're struggling to get hands and ball down the middle.”