Conor McAtamney says Derry would be in the All-Ireland series but for the costly mistakes they made in Saturday's Qualifier thriller against Tipperary.

The Premier County won a sensational match by 1-21 to 2-17 but only after the Oak Leafers coughed up five injury-time points (two in the first half, three in the second) and a gift-wrapped goal to Kevin O'Halloran:

"We had the game, definitely," midfield ace McAtamney told The Irish News. "I thought the momentum that was with us would have won it, but mistakes cost us in the end up. If we had won it, it would have been great, but we didn't. We're very disappointed.

"We were happy enough going in at half-time even, though we weren't playing all that well, but we were still a point up, which was a plus for us. But Tipp rattled over two or three at the start of the second half and they got a goal too that didn't help us. In fairness, we came back and we probably should have held on, but we didn't.

"After the first round of Ulster, nobody gave us any hope and some of ourselves never gave us any hope either, but after a few wins momentum started to grow and we certainly started to enjoy training more. It's just disappointing we couldn't push on and get to play at Croke Park in an All-Ireland quarter-final."

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