Former Dublin Footballer Paul Flynn has blasted Derry's performance against Westmeath yesterday, as last year's All-Ireland semi-finalists struggle to find any form resembling the Derry we've come to know over the last three years.
It was a must-win game for Derry, who were coming off the back of three successive Championship defeats, with only a win enough to see them hobble onto the preliminary quarter-finals.
In what was a nip and tuck game, between two sides who seemed - albeit surprisingly - competitively matched, it was Derry who pulled away with twenty minutes to play, earning themselves a commanding four-point lead.
Despite a late surge from Westmeath that saw them trailing by just a single point with sixty minutes played and needing only a draw to eliminate Derry, The Oak Leaf County dug deep to find a 65th-minute goal, securing a four-point win and a spot in the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals.
READ ALSO: Mickey Harte Bites Back At Derry Criticism In Pointed BBC Interview
15 June 2024; James Dolan of Westmeath in action against Conor Glass of Derry during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 3 match between Derry and Westmeath at Páirc Esler in Newry, Down. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Paul Flynn blasts Derry's lack of progress in the Championship
Despite hobbling past Westmeath and surviving to see another day in the Championship, it's tough to get away from a Derry side - who under Mickey Harte seem like a shadow of last year's side.
Paul Flynn did not hold back in skating Derry’s abject form in his analysis of the match on last night’s Saturday Game:
No not for me (they didn't turn a corner). I think the only positive for them is that they got the win.
They might look it and say, okay they didn't let in a goal, like they were leaking goals, but for me, today they looked like a Division Three team.
You're asking yourself how is that the case after being League Champions and looking so dominant and being put up into the top teir. Like six out of twenty shots they scored - Thirty percent is absolutely appalling...whatever is going on, it wasn't fixed today in my opinion.
"For me today, they looked like a Division 3 team." Paul Flynn doesn't hold back on his assessment of Derry and their performance against Westmeath. #TheSaturdayGame pic.twitter.com/3OHPMLY0cq
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) June 15, 2024
The 2-07 to 0-09 win, means Derry will now continue to the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals next weekend as the third-placed team, meaning they'll face an away draw subject to the avoidance of repeat pairings from the group stages.
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