DEFIANT Mickey Harte says Derry have silenced their doubters for now.
The Oak Leaf stormed into the All-Ireland quarter-finals last night after stunning Mayo 4-3 on penalties.
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Derry prevailed after a dogfight with Kevin McStay’s men finished level after extra-time in Castlebar.
Odhran Lynch saved Ryan O’Donoghue’s effort before Conor Doherty’s dramatic winner dumped Mayo out of the race for Sam.
Harte’s men were lashed after losing three SFC games in a row.
But he rapped: “As some of the players said, they’re in a bubble of their own and people can say what they want about them.
“The snipers will do what they do.
“They’ll only wait until the next time when there’s an opportunity to snipe and they’ll snipe again.
“This doesn’t put them away, it just puts them down for a few days anyway.
“It’s an endorsement of the quality that’s in this team and of the resolve that’s in it and the character that’s in it.
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“When you get to this stage, there’s no way you’ll sneak into the latter stages.
“You’ve got to win your way into it. If we want to be in the last four, there’s a serious task ahead of us.”
The Tyrone native hopes reaching the last eight has restored pride ahead of tomorrow morning’s draw as they prepare to face Dublin, Kerry or Donegal at Croke Park next weekend.
He added: “We’ll see on Monday morning what the nature of that task is.”
