Derry get back on the right track

Derry 3-10 Wexford 0-9: Derry boss Micky Moran insists his county's championship is now very much back on course.

They travelled home from Wexford with their championship aspirations intact having handed the Wexford a 10-point drubbing in this senior football qualifier at Wexford Park on Saturday afternoon.

"We just wanted to get over it. It was a major stumbling block and we've done that. We know we've more work to do and we're aware of the step up we face from here on out," stressed Moran.

The manner in which Derry deflated the Wexford bubble which was buoyant during the league suggests that Derry have got it right again.

Seán-Marty Lockhart, who gave a man-of-the-match performance, said: "We won't have it as easy again. We struggled to get the journey (to Wexford) out of the legs during the opening 30 minutes, but once we hit the two goals in the lead up to the break we settled, eventually taking control in the closing 15 minutes."

Thirty-three minutes into the game Wexford led 0-6 to 0-3 as Derry were finding it difficult to bring a pattern to their game.

Then Anthony Tohill sneaked in behind the Wexford defence and picked a high Patrick Bradley delivery out of the air, before beating goalkeeper John Cooper with a neat side-footed effort to the bottom corner of the net.

Two minutes into first-half injury-time Dermot Dougan beat Cooper from close range leaving Derry with a 2-3 to 0-6 interval lead.

Towards the end of the match Derry stepped up their game as they finished with an Enda Muldoon goal "We're bitterly disappointed. We won promotion in the league but it all went wrong from there, losing the league semi-final to Limerick, and then suffering two heavy championship defeats to Laois and now Derry. It's a huge disappointment for us", stressed Wexford centre-forward Leigh O'Brien.

DERRY: M Conlon; SM Lockhart (0-1), N McCusker, K McGuckin; P McFlynn, K McCloy, G Doherty; F Doherty, A Tohill (1-3, three frees); P Brown, E Muldoon (1-0), R Rocks; D Dougan (1-0), P Bradley (0-2, 1f), M Harney (0-1). Subs: D Crozier (0-1) for McCloy; G McGonagle (0-1) for Brown; J McBride (0-1) for Rocks.

WEXFORD: J Cooper; C Morris, P Wallace, N Murphy; D Murphy, D Breen, P Curtis; W Carley, P Colfer; R Barry (0-1), L O'Brien (0-1, sideline); J Hudson (0-1); M Forde (0-5, four frees), D Fogarty, J Hegarty (0-1). Subs: S Doran for Hudson; R Stafford for Fogarty; P Carley for Forde.

Referee: J Geaney (Cork).