Derry winger Duffy not giving up the chase
Duffy feels Cork will have a spring in their step on Friday night following last week's win against Galway United
'Focus on ourselves and get back to winning ways'. That is Michael Duffy’s message to his Derry City team-mates, as they look forward to welcoming basement men Cork City, to the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, tomorrow night.
The talented winger, who won June’s SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers Ireland Player of the Month accolade, is looking to bounce back from last Sunday night’s defeat at Shamrock Rovers.
Losing at Tallaght Stadium sees the Candystripes sitting in third spot a massive 11 points behind Stephen Bradley’s men, but Duffy concedes they are now just aiming for the three points tomorrow evening.
“We need to bounce back big time on Friday and then just take it game by game and just keep pushing on and see where it takes us in a few weeks,” he insisted.
“We have to go again and there’s still a lot to play for and obviously we need a lot to happen if we’re going to get our hands on a trophy this year, but we just look at it now that the bare minimum has to be second and just try to keep winning games over the next few weeks and see what happens in the table.
“Everyone can see that a lot of teams take points off each other because it’s a tough league, but if we can just keep picking off results and then obviously we’ve the FAI Cup game where we want to get a big win against Drogheda and move into the quarter-finals.
"Hopefully we get on a good cup final, which would hopefully get us to the Aviva, which is always an unbelievable day out.
“Look, that’s just the goals for now, yes we were all so disappointed after Sunday’s defeat, but we just have to dust ourselves off. Everyone spoke at training on Tuesday morning and we’re ready to go again to kick-on over the next few weeks.”
The Rebel Army secured only their third victory of the season last Friday night seeing off Galway United at Turner’s Cross and Duffy feels that result will mean Cork will have a spring in their step on Friday night
“It’s a massive game for them, but to be honest the last round of fixtures for every team is like a cup final, there’s so much on the line, as the league is that tight from down around the bottom right up to the European places,” he explained.
Michael Duffy in action at Tallaght on Sunday past. (Photo: Ben McShane/Sportsfile)
“We just have to get back to winning ways, think positive and get the three points on Friday night.”
Duffy, who missed a great chance to break the deadlock against the Hoops, conceded last Sunday’s loss was a hard one to take but continued their recent poor form at Tallaght Stadium.
“Especially down there as well and even this year we started off well against them this year, we’ve had chances to sort of kill the game off, especially at the Brandywell,” he added.
“Last Sunday, I could have put us 1-0 and it would have been a different game from then, but the ball hit the inside of the post and came back out, but if that goes in the match completely changes; we also had a few other half chances as well.
“I thought we were on top, especially in the first half, they might have had a wee bit more of the ball but our game plan was working well, but we came out in the second half and conceded so early it was a sucker punch.
“Once a team like Rovers get in front, they can frustrate the life out of you, you can sort of start losing your game plan and go all over the place and I think we did that, we just lost it a wee bit and the game fell away from us then.”