Derry City manager Tiernan Lynch believes 'resilience is the key'
It is now just one defeat in seven games for the Candystripes ahead of this weekend's game against league leaders Shamrock Rovers
Derry City manager Tiernan Lynch believes that his team's resilience was the key to the valuable point earned at Drogheda United at the weekend.
It is now just one defeat in seven games for the Candystripes, who fought back from a goal down to earn a point thanks to Dom Thomas' first goal for the club, a deflected 90th minute strike from distance.
Derry City have come from behind to earn five points already this season and as a result, they sit just two points behind league leaders Shamrock Rovers ahead of this week's game between the top two at the Brandywell this weekend.
“The word we keep talking about is resilience and we needed to find that resilience tonight, because things weren’t going our way for long periods, but we weren’t going to roll over and let it get the better of us, we rolled our sleeves up and we dug out a point," Lynch reflected afterwards.
“Credit to the players for the resilience that they showed tonight, they didn’t lay-down and accept the defeat, they made sure they got something from the game. Two things that it’s about, one is the squad and the other is making sure that you have a bit of pride putting that shirt over your head and that shirt meant something to those boys tonight.
“They refused to lay down and without showing any kind of arrogance, we were probably a wee bit disappointed that we didn’t go on and nick it."
"Decisions have to be made but as a manager that's where you want to be, but there’s nobody bigger than Derry City," the manager insisted.
“Michael will be the first one to tell you and you never see him coming off kicking bottles or not wanting to shake hands, he's a Derry City man through and through, so if it’s the betterment for the team, he’s all for it.
“We’ve been talking a lot about that as a group, because it has happened now on three or four occasions this season. We know that this is all about squads, we have a squad that we feel that we can tweak and change, especially higher up the pitch and bringing the boys on, made a massive difference."
Another big decision made by Lynch was the change to his system, which meant two very different performances in the first half and second half. Lynch replaced right wing-back Ciaron Harkin with striker Daniel Mullen and changed to a more attacking 4-4-2 system.
“As a group we were really disappointed with our first half performance, we never really got going, we never played the football that we wanted to play and we were also hugely disappointed with the goal that we conceded from a set-piece," he reflected.
“We then tweaked things at half-time, because we needed to try and get after the game, get a few more men higher up the pitch, get closer to our front three. I thought we were very dominant in the second half and I felt our substitutes made a massive difference; they came on and gave us a real impetus in the game, played on the front foot.
“I thought we were very dominant, we probably played a lot in front of them, they were difficult to break down; they’ve got five that stretch touch-line to touch-line and they’ve two people that sit in front, so they make it very difficult.
“They’re a very good side at what they do and we just probably needed that little slice of luck, but we take our point and we move on. “Ultimately the longer it went on you’re delighted to take a point in the end.”