Derry take on Antrim in McKenna Cup

The Ulster Council have optimistically put on the second round his week end and if the games do go ahead Derry will travel up the M2 to take on Antrim at Casement Park.

There is a novel twist in this game in that Paddy Bradley and Eoin are in the Derry panel while their father Liam is the manager of Antrim. Under the Glenullin man Antrim had their best season in a generation but his McKenna Cup panel has been badly diluted by the unavailability of the St. Gall's players who are preparing for an all Ireland Club semi final next month. Niall McKeever has joined Australian rules team Sydney Swans and this has forced Bradley to bring in a raft of inexperienced players.

However the McKenna Cup played under another set of experimental rules will see managers experiment with players as well and all of Derry's thirty man squad will get some playing time.

The Derry squad contains a hard core of regulars like Fergal Doherty, Joe Diver, Eoin Bradley, Gerard O'Kane, Paddy Bradley, Mark Lynch, Patsy Bradley and Barry McGuigan. Michael McGoldrick and Liam Hinphey have been recalled after spells in Australia but there are two very interesting newcomers in attack. Steelstown's Stephen Cleary and Craigbane's Adrain McLaughlin and two big and fast young players who had been scoring freely in club football over the past couple of seasons.

Unusually most of Derry's problems last season were in defence and in an effort to strengthen this department manager Cassidy has brought in 28-year-old Dungiven defender Gavin McLaughlin who has been playing well for a number of seasons at full back.

Barry and Sean Leo McGoldrick are in Australia at present so most of Cassidy's experiments will be in defence.

The McKenna Cup is all about unearthing new players for the championship and both managers will be happy enough with a few good individual performances and not too worried about the result.

The first round postponement will mean that the whole McKenna Cup will be squeezed into less than three weeks as the National League starts on February 5. As for Sunday's game Derry look to have the stronger panel.