Three Derry teams in action this week

DERRY fans will be hoping for better from their teams this week after the defeats of last week in the football and hurling leagues.

It's the Under 21 footballers who shocked Tyrone in the preliminary round who get the ball rolling when they take on Fermanagh at Celtic park on Wednesday evening at 8pm. After their terrific display against highly rated Tyrone they will be hoping that tall midfielder Caolan O'Boyle has overcome a leg injury. He had a great game against Tyrone.

However there could be a bit of good news in that Declan Mullan, Stephen Cleary and John F. Bradley who missed the win over Tyrone may be in line for a place and with these extra options Derry look to have a pretty strong team.

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Barring further injuries manager Damien Cassidy is unlikely to make any changes to the fifteen who did so well at Omagh.

On Saturday afternoon the hurlers travel to Navan to play Meath and a win here would keep their promotion hopes alive. Manager James O'Kane will be keeping his fingers crossed that some of his injured men who missed the shock defeat by Armagh will be back.

Meath have beaten Mayo and London as have Derry, however Meath drew with Armagh and that point just keeps them ahead of Derry. Veteran Nicky Horan scored their two goals against Mayo last Sunday so the Derry defence would need to be more alert than they were at Celtic Park.

It's a tall order but curiously Derry hurlers seem to play better away from home and two date they have won two away and lost two at home.

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The footballers are staring relegation in the face and if they are to overcome joint leaders Cork at Celtic Park on Saturday evening hey need a huge improvement from their last four games.

Currently its hard to see how Derry can win the game but the one hope they cling to is that Cork are bad travellers and have lost at Omagh to Tyrone who are at the bottom with Derry.

Derry need to show a bit more urgency in their play and tighten up in a defence that was run ragged against Monaghan last Sunday.

A defeat would be an unprecedented fifth in a row for Damien Cassidy's men and the omens are not good for this one.

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