Derry's Connolly insists 'We have to capitalise going forward'
Over the years, Derry City have enjoyed an excellent record at Dalymount Park
Centre-back Mark Connolly insists that Derry City have to capitalise whenever the likes of Shamrock Rovers, Shelbourne, Drogheda United and St Patrick’s Athletic are in European action this season.
The Brandywell men, who currently sit eight points behind Stephen Bradley's table toppers but have played a game less, travel to Bohemians tomorrow night and the City skipper wants a positive result.
City had the opportunity to close the gap on Rovers to just two points last week, but despite taking a second half lead, they feel to defeat, with former Brandywell star Aaron McEneff scoring a last-minute winner which deflated the home fans and players. But with the season just at its halfway point, there is plenty to play for, with the schedules for the teams involved in European football set to become particularly intense.
“Look, whenever they’re (Shamrock Rovers) in Europe and other teams are in Europe, we have to make sure to capitalise on that, but before that we go again this Friday at Dalymount Park,” Connolly stated.
“It’s fine margins and last Friday night it was fine margins which decided the game. I felt in the first half we were decent on the front foot and in the second half they obviously had spells, which they were going to have as they are a good team.
“You can also see the players in their squad which they have and they’re very, very strong, but as I said I felt we minimise their chances, but it’s those fine margins which made the difference.”
The Foylesiders going into tomorrow evening’s encounter looking to bounce back from their home loss to The Hoops. City have bounced back well from setbacks already this season and Connolly is hoping to do so again.
“We have to keep going, we went on an unbeaten run prior to the Rovers game, we won a good few games and have to get another run going again, yes it was a disappointing result, ideally we want to win every game and obviously we were hoping to beat Rovers,” he added.
“Look we were up against a Shamrock Rovers team who are in a really, really good form, but I felt we minimise them to very little chances and we take the positives from that. We need to dust ourselves down and before we go into the break hopefully get a good result against Bohs.”
Over the years, Derry City have enjoyed an excellent record at Dalymount Park, with Mullen memorably scoring a last-minute goal there last season.
“Bohs is going to be difficult, but listen, every game in this league is tough and at no stage will there be a game where you are going to turn up and it’s a guaranteed three points,” Connolly warned. “It’s an extremely tough league and away to Bohs and away to Rennie (Alan Reynolds) on Friday is going to be tough.
“I know they lost at Drogheda, but like us they too had been on a good run up until last Friday, so we know it’s going to be a tough game, but we just need to be at it and hopefully we can get the three points.”
The Gypsies boss knows the Candy Stripes well, but the City skipper believes Tiernan Lynch’s squad is a different team now and they can take confidence from their narrow 1-0 win which they secured in February thanks to Michael Duffy’s stunning free-kick.
“Rennie knows us well, but obviously we’ve got a lot of good new players, which he’ll not be used to,” added Connolly.
“We beat them at the Brandywell earlier on in the season. We know what they’re about, so we know it’s going to be a tough game, but as I said we just need to focus on ourselves.
“We were on a decent wee run recently, so the Rovers loss was a small set-back, but hopefully against Bohs we can finish the first half of the season on a high; then sort of switch off for a week and then get ready to go again once we all come back.”