Shane McGuigan knows Derry still haven't kicked old habits
Derry footballer Shane McGuigan pictured at the launch of John West Féile – 2026, marking 11 years sponsorship by the company of the competition at Croke Park today. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
After getting themselves in a great position to win promotion from Division Two of the Allianz Football League with four wins in a row, last weekend’s defeat to Louth was a sore one for Derry.
What troubles Oak Leaf County forward, Shane McGuigan, most about it was that it exposed some of the “old scars” that were such a feature of their 2025 season when they failed to win a single competitive match in either the League or Championship.
“Yeah, there was definitely a lot of bad habits brought up from last year and a lot of it was that it's things within our control,” said McGuigan at the launch of the 2026 John West GAA Féile competitions yesterday.
“We were one of the teams with the highest turnovers last year, one of the teams that were easiest to press a kick-out against and teams were getting their kick out (away regularly) against us too.
“Post the Meath game, we analysed and compared from last year and things like that and we definitely had worked on it from Tyrone prior to Louth.
“But then Louth, like I said, those old habits came about, maybe a man switching off when we were pressed up high on the opposition’s kick outs, dropping ball short, missed opportunities and then our skills, our basic skills let us down a bag full in Ardee.
“That was something that we had looked at within Louth that they were extremely good at, punishing you on turnovers, and that's what happened.
“If you were to look at last year I think if you were to see that pattern, it came out within the league and championship, in both.”
It’s out of their hands going into the final regulation round of fixtures this Sunday, but Derry still have a decent chance of winning promotion to Division 1.
Shane McGuigan of Derry in action against James Maguire of Louth during the Allianz Football League Division 2 match between Louth and Derry at DEFY Pairc Mhuire in Ardee, Louth. Photo by Thomas Flinkow/Sportsfile.
If they beat Cavan and Cork are beaten by Tyrone, then they’ll be promoted unless Louth beat Kildare and somehow make up an inferior scoring difference on Derry that currently stands at 24 points.
“It's out of our hands now as such, but we still have a job to do and we have to go on to this weekend thinking that we can still get promoted, we'd be some fools if we came off the pitch and seen that the results had gone our way and we hadn't done our part of the deal, so we have to look after ourselves first and foremost before we can start trying to ask other teams to do us favours,” says McGuigan.
“We just have to worry about Cavan and then with a few prayers maybe we can get promoted. But it's something that we've talked about too, Division 2 is still such a fierce league and if you look at the teams that might come down from Division 1 next year, Division 2 could be a tougher league next year.
“Will it be end of the world if Derry don't get promoted this year? Definitely not. Because we know next year too we're still going to get that same preparation going into the Championship.
“Do I feel like these games have helped us going into the Championship? 100%. Because 12 months ago going into the Championship, especially against Donegal with 7 defeats, we didn't have much confidence going into that game so we've got our wins, we've got our learnings too and at the end of the day the Championship is where you earn your corn.”
