'The goal hasn't changed' - Donegal defeat hasn't dented Derry's Sam Maguire hopes

Prior to the Ulster quarter-final defeat to Donegal, things couldn't have been going better for Derry and centre-back Eoin McEvoy.

An All-Ireland Under-20 winner, his first two years at senior level had yielded provincial titles, All-Ireland whispers and an All-Star nomination in 2023.

With Mickey Harte at the helm, the focus on Sam Maguire has been sharpened.

A promising McKenna Cup was followed by a scintillating league campaign, 12 months on from defeat to Dublin in a Division 2 final, they turned the tables on the All-Ireland champions in a Division 1 decider settled on penalties.

The versatile McEvoy finished the league among the top 10 scorers from play, his 2-02 of his overall 3-04 coming in a player of the match display against the Dubs.

That however quickly fell by the wayside when Jim McGuiness led his Donegal side out of Celtic Park with a win that secured a place in the last four of Ulster.

Derry’s hopes of three-in-row were dashed, but the Magherafelt man dismisses the notion of an "ambush" on their own patch.

"They kind of set up the same in the league," the April winner of the PwC GAA/GPA Player of the Month said.

"We knew they were coming to win. We knew they would bring something, and it was our own fault for not reacting quicker.

"It wasn’t really that big of a setback. We know we’re in a good place. We had a good McKenna Cup, a good league. Probably the biggest thing that disappointed us was just the performance, the energy levels we brought to the game."

The main talking point of the game centred on the concession of four goals, or more to the point, the nature of them.

Sweeper-keeper Odhran Lynch, such a vital component of Derry’s play, was caught out three times off his line, but club-mate McEvoy says the