Defensive effort set the tone - O'Doherty

Cormac O'Doherty made the case for Slaughtneil's defence as they retained their Ulster club hurling crown with an impressive 0-23 to 0-10 win over St John's at the Athletic Grounds on Saturday.

The man-of-the-match may have been wearing the number 14 jersey and top-scored with 10 points, but his deeper role saw him form part of a formidable defensive unit for the Derry champions who looked likely to win their sixth provincial crown from an early stage.

The platform for their victory was in shutting down the St John's attack, limiting the Belfast club to just three points from play.

A major target heading into the final was to limit opportunities and ensure they didn't concede goals which may have given the Antrim champions a lift they badly needed.

"We can get scores, but pride ourselves on that defensive unit," 29-year-old O'Doherty told BBC Sport NI.

"We conceded one goal to Portaferry [in the Ulster semi-final] which annoyed us and we set out our stall to make sure they [St John's] didn't get any chances.

"To hold a team to 10 points in a hurling game is a massive defensive effort and that started with Eamon [Cassidy] and Chrissy [McKaigue] inside. Their hassle and work-rate set the tone for everybody."

'Setbacks make the good days so much sweeter'

There have been so many big days for this group of Slaughtneil hurlers with 13-straight Derry titles and now a sixth Ulster crown.

Of course, there have been disappointments on the provincial stage along the way too and O'Doherty says they have made victories like Saturday's all the sweeter.

"Mark [McGuigan, captain] alluded to it in his speech - these are special days for the club and something we don't take for granted," he continued.

"That's shown in our hunger and desire, year after year. We lose games and have setbacks, but we always bounce back up again and days like this are so special, so worth it."

Slaughtneil now have an All-Ireland semi-final against Galway's Loughrea to look forward to with the game pencilled in for Saturday, 20 December.

Last year, they fell agonisingly short when losing out to Sarsfield's of Cork by one point, so the ambition now turns to taking the next step and reaching a final for the first time.

"Last year hurt us a lot - there's no point saying any different," O'Doherty acknowledged.

"We thought we had a great chance and we did but for whatever reason we didn't get over the line.

"We are exactly where we want to be now. [We've] three weeks to prepare for a massive battle in another All-Ireland semi-final - what else would you want coming up to Christmas?"