Former Derry footballer Paddy Bradley has slammed Brian McIver for excluding him from the Oak Leaf senior panel.

Attacking ace Bradley hasn't featured at intercounty level since McIver took charge of Derry in 2012 but the 34-year-old - who is top scorer in the county football league at present, with 4-37 from eight games - is confident that he could still do a job at the highest level:

"No different to anyone else as an ex-county player, in the year or two after you retire ... well I haven't officially retired I just wasn't picked ... you feel that you could still give something," the Glenullin clubman told Shannonside FM.

"But the Derry management have taken the decision that I haven't anything to offer. I would say given the chance I probably would, I'm playing good enough club football. The fact that I had two cruciate knee injuries, I was written off too early.

"I made a point in my own head I was going to come back and prove people wrong and I was hoping that I would get the opportunity to play on that stage again but it never came and probably at this stage it will never come again.

"Brian McIver has gone for a lot of boys that are good at doing the bleep test, that have good stamina, that have good endurance. You look at the half-back line and the half-forward line of Derry - it is not necessarily boys that can put the ball over the bar or boys that are very skilful.

"In the Derry leagues this year I am the top scorer and playing good enough football. Out of the top ten scorers in Division One, Two and Three, Cailean O'Boyle was the only one on the Derry panel. It is strange because it is not as if Derry are blessed with good forwards."

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