Derry midfielder Benson hoping for a 'Good Friday'
Benson knows City aren’t going to get anything their own way against John Caulfield’s Galway United
Derry City’s Robbie Benson was pleased to get his first start for the Candy Stripes and now wants the squad to refocus and get ready for Friday’s encounter at Galway United.
Benson, who was frustrated after last week’s disappointing 3-1 home loss to Drogheda United, knows City aren’t going to get anything their own way against John Caulfield’s side.
United currently sit in fourth place, some five points ahead of Tiernan Lynch's side and have an impressive record in their last six encounters against City picking up 11 points from a possible 18 on offer.
“Look, every week is a cup final, really that’s the way it is,” explained the midfielder.
“You have to be at it every week and I thought against Drogheda that was the most comfortable we’ve looked in a game in terms of dominating the ball. You could hear their players getting frustrated with each other, but look we have a big week coming up starting with Galway away.
“We’ll be aiming to try and get nine points from nine and that would be huge, but we just have to focus on Galway and do our due diligence on them and be ready to go again on Friday night.”
The ex-Dundalk man was disappointed that the team were unable to get Liam Boyce ‘out of trouble’, against Drogheda. The Northern Ireland international was sent-off just one minute after giving City the lead by scoring his first goal for the club, but his dismissal completely turned the contest on its head and Benson was frustrated that the team couldn’t manage the game better.
Boyce’s sending off was the massive moment in the encounter and Benson was annoyed City didn’t get things right.
“It was disappointing, because we were well in control and cruising until the sending off,” he insisted.
“It was quite an enjoyable game to play in terms of getting on the ball, we dominated the 60 minutes that we had 11 on the field and then it was a little bit naivety from Liam and the rest of us not getting him out trouble and not defending the set-pieces and that’s what cost us.
“It’s very frustrating because if we keep 11 on the pitch I feel we see the game out.
“He knows himself, but as I said It’s just disappointing that we couldn’t dig in after that and get him out of trouble, because he put us in front in the first place, so that’s disappointing.”
Robbie Benson made his first start of the season against Drogheda United last Friday night. (Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile)
In fact, the Candystripes have picked up just two draws in their last six visits to Galway United in all competitions, and a lot has changed since their last victory there back in August, 2025, when two goals from Mark Timlin sent them on their way to a commanding 4-0 victory. City's last goal at Galway came back in 2017, a Rory Patterson strike in a 2-1 defeat, while Ruaidhri Higgins' team failed to score in three of four games against John Caulfield's side last term.
Meanwhile, Tiernan Lynch has backed his players to bounce back yet again after the latest disappointment of their defeat to Drogheda United.
"I think it's really unfair to say there's a lack of character in this team," he insisted. "At 1-0 you're talking about the best performance of the season, and to concede the goals we conceded just isn't good enough.
“We win together and we lose together and there will be no finger pointing in this group. Those goals weren't good enough, they're not acceptable as our standard and it's our job to put that right."