Kenny Shiels focused on third place following Derry City's FAI Cup exit
By Gary Ferry
Kenny Shiels said he had no complaints after watching Derry City’s last hopes of silverware this season come to an end in humbling fashion at Oriel Park.
The Candy Stripes lost 4-0 at Dundalk in a largely one-sided contest in which former Derry players Patrick McEleney and Michael Duffy played a starring role.
Derry conceded after just 47 seconds and it did not get any better from there as Stephen Kenny’s side kept alive their hope of a domestic cup double this season.
Shiels admitted that the better team had won.
“We’re disappointed but it’s vitally important that we get our chins up again,” he said. “We conceded early and that set the marker for the game. At half time it could have been 1-0 either way. They were reduced to shots from distance but one of our players went to sleep and we went in at half time 1-0 down. We felt a bit hard done by at that stage, because we could have been going in at least level, but then we gave away a penalty at the start of the second half. I thought it was a penalty so I’ve no complaints.
“We tried to get back into the game a 2-1 but then in the last ten minutes there was a loss of composure and they ran out worthy winners. I have no complaints but the performance needs to be better for next week.”
The strength of Dundalk was obvious from the start in yesterday’s game, which was in contrast to Derry who again had to play a makeshift defence due to a suspension to Conor McDermott and an injury to Harry Monaghan.
“We were hamstrung because we lost both of our right backs before the game,” Shiels continued. “We played without a natural right back and that had an impact on us defensively because it distorted our hope. That was a restriction which didn’t help the performance, but we can’t make excuses because I thought the best team won on the night. We want to stay positive now and keep the positivity for next week.”
City meet Dundalk again next Sunday at Oriel Park, and Shiels is looking forward to the game already, with his and his team’s focus now solely on securing third place.
“I want to try and get third spot,” he insisted. “We definitely have narrowed the gap to Dundalk in my view and tonight we were more in the game than we were last year until the penalty which was a kick in the teeth. We came back at them after that and they were panicking and it looked like it would be 2-1, but they then got the third goal and that sort of killed us.”