Mickey Harte was a happy man after Tyrone completed a six-in-a-row of Dr McKenna Cups at Derry's expense.
Speaking to the Irish News after the 2-13 to 1-7 win in Newry, the Red Hand boss paid tribute to his players: "They do work hard on the training field, and we do a lot of ball work on the training field, and they know the style of play that we want them to play with.
"And I suppose you only hope that they progress during the year, and as the season gets tougher and the challenges get harder, they'll be able to bring that sort of preparation to bear. That was good tonight, we did do some really good movement up the field.
"Probably as usual, with the conditions that prevailed, there was a few mishandlings, a few wrong shot selection, but that's all part and parcel to be progressing to be better than you were the last time out, and I think that was a good performance.
"We have done well in the McKenna Cup in the last six years. If you look back at our progress over that period of time, we weren't too bad. We were in a league Division 1 final and we have been in an Ulster final and won it, and we have been in All-Ireland semi-finals, so I don't think there's any way you can say doing well in the McKenna Cup mitigates against doing good the rest of the season.
"So we'll take it as a positive and we'll try and build on it."
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