Defender Mark Connolly 'honoured' to captain Derry
City will be aiming to bounce back at home to Bohemians on Friday night
Defender Mark Connolly feels the new culture and professionalism Tiernan Lynch has put in place at Derry City will benefit the club.
The Foylesiders will be aiming to bounce back at home to Bohemians on Friday night, following their disappointing opening night loss at champions Shelbourne,
The 33-year-old is confident City can get a positive result against Alan Reynolds’ men, especially in front of what’s expected to be a sold out Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.
“We sat down over the weekend and we started on Monday morning to try and start putting things right,” he explained..
“We all know this is going to take a bit of time but from what I’m seeing, what the staff are putting in place and what the new boys are going to bring, it’s going to be positive for the football club moving forward.
“The Brandywell is a special place to play at and it’s something the new boys and the staff will enjoy, because the fans are incredible.
“Derry is a passionate city and they’re passionate fans, some amazing people and even tonight they’ve come down in their numbers, as they always do and at the end of the game they’ve clapped us off and that goes a long way.
“Whenever we went into the dressing room that was something the boys were talking about, that the fans backed us and look, yes, we’re disappointed, so we want to put it right and from myself to all the players we can’t thank them enough for the support.
“Look it’s going to be a long year and it’s going to be a long season but I know there’s going to be a lot more better nights compared to this evening, but we need to just stick together, it’s only the first game and we’re on a long, long road but I’m really, really positive we’ll get there.”
Tiernan Lynch has given the Clones native the captain’s armband and he concedes getting the captaincy is a big deal for him.
"It's an incredible honour,” he stated. “This football club is an absolutely huge football club in Ireland.
“I've watched documentaries and I've seen stuff about Derry City over the years and it has a great history and it's an absolute honour to captain Derry.
“My job now is to try and push everyone forward and push the club forward as best I can and give absolutely everything.”
BOUNCING BACK... Derry City fell to defeat at Shelbourne last week
“Listen we knew how tough it was going to be, they’re still on that wave of winning the league last season, we’ve obviously had a lot of changes at the football club, a lot of new players and obviously a new management team, but tonight (Friday) was bitterly disappointing,” he remarked.
“To be honest you can’t concede those goals and think you’re going to get something out of the game.
“They obviously started the way I knew they would start, first home game since winning league, new players, first game of the season, they were going to come and start fast, we were OK in terms of dealing with it, but listen the first goal wasn’t ideal and then we get back into but concede straight from the tip.
“It’s very, very frustrating but look, it's the first game of the season, we didn’t want it to start like that but these things happen and we need to make sure we improve.
“Our new signings are all big boys and they knew whenever they came it wasn’t going to be easy and we’ve told them that.
“The pitch tonight wasn’t ideal, but both teams have to play on it and you have to roll your sleeves up, defend, win your headers and win your duels, but at times we didn’t do that, but this is the League of Ireland and we all know this.
“The new signings now know what the league is all about and it’s now about adapting to it as quickly as we can.
“As I said the manager and all the staff have come in and put in a really good culture at the football club, with structures and all I can say is that everyone is full pedal behind it and trying to push it forward.”