CHRISSY FEET ON GROUND

ORLA BANNON

AS much as he enjoyed it, Chrissy Mckaigue insists Derry won’t get carried away with their “emotional” win over Tyrone.

The Slaughtneil dual star (above) has had many big days with his club but Sunday’s stunning hammering of the Ulster and All-ireland champions has to be right up there.

He knows though what is coming around the corner - Monaghan in an Ulster semi-final in two weeks time.

“That’s the thing about Ulster,” he said. “As special as this is, you wake up tomorrow morning and Monaghan lie await for us and they will be every bit as hard.

“If we don’t put a performance in against them, this won’t be as special. So, yes, we are very happy but at the end of the day it’s only a quarter-final.

“I wouldn’t get too carried away in many ways. There is a lot of emotion attached because of the Tyrone v Derry rivalry and Tyrone being All-ireland champions but the reality is you play Gaelic football to try and get wins in the Championship. So we have to take care of our own business.”

That said, Mckaigue knows what a huge result Sunday’s 1-18 to 0-10 win was for Derry.

It was a scoreline Derry fans will remember for a long time as memories of 2006 were rekindled when they also went to Omagh and stunned the then reigning champs.

“We were massively hungry because there haven’t been a lot of great days for Derry football and we have had to suffer for a lot of years,” he added.

“The challenges don’t come much bigger as coming to Tyrone on their own patch, so we’re happy.

“We were dominant but Tyrone still have a serious calibre of player.

“In my opinion Darren Mccurry is in the top two forwards in Ireland, definitely.”