Sean Cavanagh gives his verdict on Mickey Harte's Derry season
Hopes were high for Mickey Harte's side after beating Dublin on penalties to win the Division One title in March
Sean Cavanagh believes Derry fans won't be happy with a Championship season that has not been 'anywhere near good enough'.
Hopes were high for Mickey Harte's side after beating Dublin on penalties to win the Division One title in March.
But a defeat to Donegal in the Ulster Championship in April saw their form take a downward spiral.
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Despite defeats to Galway and Armagh in the All-Ireland group series, they scraped through to the knockout stages.
Another penalty shootout success - this time against Mayo - saw them through to the quarter-finals.
But they looked to run out of ideas when Kerry pulled away in the closing stages at Croke Park on Sunday.
"Cavanagh, asked about Harte's Derry future, told RTE'S Sunday Game: "I think if you asked anyone in Derry tonight, they would say that winning a League does not mean an awful lot when you go through a Championship where you've lost four games, drawn one and beaten a Division Three team.
"That's not good. That's a poor Championship season.
"With the personnel and quality they have in their group, and they have a couple of cracking minor teams, from last year's All-Ireland winning team to the team in this year's final, coming through, there is a lot to be envious of in terms of talent in the county.
"But the Championship has simply not been anywhere near good enough."
Cavanagh, who played under Harte for Tyrone, thinks Derry have struggled to recover from a 4-11 to 0-17 defeat to Donegal in the provincial championship.
"I think Derry played with fear and maybe they sort of showed the scars of the humiliating defeats they probably have taken against big teams.
"They played that containment style football that ultimately, when it came down to that last 10 or 15 minutes and the game was there to be won, those physical and mental scars really showed up and they weren't ready to win.
"They were almost content to lose the game.
"When they came up against an amazing Donegal performance that night in Celtic Park in the first round of the championship, the humiliation of that game, coupled by the way the Armagh game went and the Galway game, I think they just played with too much fear.
"It wasn't the team that last year went and they scored 1-15 against Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final and were a kick of the ball away from the final. We were all expecting this Derry team to go a step further this year.
"It just felt like that loss in Celtic Park and the manner of it was just too much."
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