By Ciaran Woods

c.woods@gaeliclife.com

IT'S been a busy few weeks for Conleth Gilligan. The attacker played a key role in helping his Ballinderry Shamrocks club side secure the Ulster Club League title, winning the Man of the Match award in last Sunday's final against Glenullin. As well as that, he has also cemented himself back in the Derry attack as the Oak Leaf men continue their march through the National League.

This weekend, they travel to Galway to take on a home side who they know will provide a stern examination of Derry's credentials. Gilligan will once again play his part at corner-forward. It's taken some time to adjust since his return from a hernia operation, but, as things stand, Gilligan is just glad to be part of the side.

"It's different playing in the corner, but wherever there's a position going I'll take it! It's different in terms of position, but at the same time there's not that big of a pile of difference because you still have to get out in front of your man, you have to win the ball, and if there's a chance you have to take your score.

"It's always nice to come back from injury, and it's always great to nail down a starting place in the team. But I've been about long enough at this stage to know that if you're not up to scratch then it won't be long till you're back on the bench, so you have to be on top of your game every day if you want to stay in the side."

Games against Galway have proven fruitful for Derry in the past, but Gilligan insists that there will be no easy points gathered this weekend. He is all too aware of the threat they pose, with Tyrone amongst the scalps taken by Galway already this season. With the evergreen Padraig Joyce and Michael Meehan still prowling Gilligan knows his defence will have to be on their toes this weekend to keep them at bay.

"In fairness to Galway, we played them last year and they were very much depleted due to a death, so they were missing three or four. Galway are still one of the form teams, they're especially hard to beat in Pearse Stadium, so we'll be going down there to get something out of it.

"Joyce and Meehan have been in great form all year, and I'd go so far as to say that on their day they're almost unmarkable, so you just have to deal with them as best you can and try to keep them as quiet as you can."

This is Paddy Crozier's third year with the side, and their results so far in the National League have shown that the Oak Leaf boys are heading in the right direction. Gilligan insists though that there has been no major overhaul of the team's tactics or approach, rather that the work already done seems to be paying dividends.

"The team is maturing a wee bit, and this year I think we're holding on and winning games by a point which in the past we would have been losing, so I think that is standing to us. But apart from that I don't think there's been any major change in how we're approaching games or the way in which we're trying to play the game."

Despite their good start, the attacker insists that it is foolish for some supporters to be losing the run of themselves and talking about All-Irelands. Derry have been starved of success for almost a decade, and silverware, any silverware, would be hugely welcome at this stage.

"It's pure pie in the sky for anyone to be thinking about winning All-Ireland titles. I think for anyone outside of Tyrone or Armagh winning an Ulster Championship would be massive, and having won nothing since the National League in 1999 it's been a long wait for silverware. There's only a handful of us who were on that squad, so to get our hands on a trophy would be fantastic. There's quite a few of the young boys who have won at minor level and that, but for the rest of us it's been a long time."