Rory Gallagher says that Fermanagh is his only focus as Derry begin the defence of the Anglo Celt Cup at Brewster Park on Saturday evening.

Gallagher has led an Oak Leaf revival since taking the reins in the county after he stepped away from the Fermanagh job, and he followed up that Ulster title win and All Ireland semi final appearance last year by securing promotion to Division One this spring.

“We were very pleased that we got promotion,” said Gallagher. “Since I got involved we had a bit of work to do to get up through the divisions and I’m glad that we have that done. We had huge disappointment in it last year, when we didn’t get up.

“We had to regroup this year and I think we did fairly well to accomplish that after six games.”

Greater prize

It is the championship though that it is all about for Derry and Gallagher. And far from the new All Ireland series format making the Ulster Championship less important, Gallagher feels it brings about an even greater prize in terms of seeding for the battle for Sam Maguire.

“I don’t think it is diluted, I think the prize is even greater. Whenever I started playing if you won your province you got through to the All Ireland semi final but that’s long gone and I think that the new format is a brilliant opportunity for everybody, both in the Tailteann Cup and in the Sam Maguire race.

“If you win Ulster the bottom line is you are a top seed. It would take something of a miracle for Kerry or Dublin not to win their provinces and whoever wins Ulster is guaranteed to stay away from them until an All Ireland semi final so I think that’s a great prize and is a better chance of qualifying.

“From our point of view now though, we can’t win Ulster unless we beat Fermanagh and that’s the whole focus and has been since the start of the year.,” he said.

With the games coming thick and fast in the league, the former Erne boss admits that there has been little time to concentrate on Fermanagh although he doesn’t feel that there will be any surprises for either side on Saturday.

“Previously you would have had your eye on the championship from a long way out but now with the volume of games you can only work on a week to week basis and I think Fermanagh would be the same. I think both teams know each other fairly well anyway - all the teams in Ulster do - so there won’t be a lot of surprises.

“Fermanagh had a good league but we’ll get our heads around them this week and away we go.”

He states though that Derry’s main focus will be on getting their own game right.

“I think Fermanagh have proved they can win fairly high scoring games, you look at the Antrim and Down games in particular. They have also won a couple of dog fights as well.

“But, I’ll just go into it with an open mind and focus on ourselves and trying to impose ourselves in the way we want to,” he said.

Injuries

Derry lost the Division Two final to Dublin and Gallagher went into the game without a couple of regular defenders and then lost All Star midfielder Conor Glass to injury early in the second half. However, he believes that they will all be fine for Saturday.

“Chrissy McKaigue and Eoin McEvoy; if it was a championship game last weekend they would have played but we just made a decision to give them that wee bit longer. They are fine.

“With Conor Glass we feared a slight hamstring strain but thankfully the scan came back fully clear, it was just a cramp as such, and he should be fine as well. Oisin McWilliams would be the only one who is likely to miss out,” he said.

McFaul back

Gallagher has also welcomed back Ciaran McFaul to the squad in recent weeks following his return from America and while Gallagher says he won’t start on Saturday, he does feel that the talented Glen man is an option.

“Do I believe Ciaran is going to start the game against Fermanagh? Absolutely not, he is only back.

“But Ciaran is a remarkably naturally talented footballer and what we seen on the Wednesday night when he came back to training was as if he hasn’t been away.

“And what I actually seen was a much more focused energy and hunger than we seen before he left. We’ll just take it week by week but I expect him to hit the ground running,” said the Derry boss and Fermanagh native.