Fixtures 21st - 23rd July

[sbgawa]

In fairness to Dundalk your incentive was to move 15 points clear of 3rd place, ours was to fight to make sure we make it into Europe next year.
I'd call that two pretty different motivators.
That being said you were at home and SK couldn't have been happy with performance.
Might have a few pound on number of goals in your next match.

[brendy_éire]

Hard fought win for Derry in Finn Park last night. Probably just about deserved a win, but 2-0 was a bit flattering.
Ronan Curtis was dropped pre-match due to "disciplinary reasons", so couple of changes in the squad.

We couldn't seem to get the ball off Harps for the first half hour, though their chances were limited. Houston's header in the box was a great opportunity to go ahead mind.
Second half, we came a lot more into it and began to control the game. In saying that, we just did our usual away from home thing of passing about a lot, without showing much intention of attacking. Shiels would have been happy with a draw.
Two well taken goals, nice to see Darren Cole off the mark, he looks a quality player.
Lovely pass from Patterson to find McEneff, who rounded Gallagher and scored.

The referee, Ray Matthews, had a poor game IMO. Some very strange decisions, mostly to the benefit of Harps.

A special mention for Eoin Toal, 18 years old and made his first start last night. Got him from Armagh, and looks a real talent.

On Harps, I think they'll be ok this season. I'd hazard a guess that they'll finish above Bohs.

[Peaky Blinder]

What was the deal with the 'Go back to your own league' flag?

[brendy_éire]

Finn Harps - Derry City highlights:

https://t.co/ttOh28ZSra

[nigel-harps1954]

Hard fought win for Derry in Finn Park last night. Probably just about deserved a win, but 2-0 was a bit flattering.
Ronan Curtis was dropped pre-match due to "disciplinary reasons", so couple of changes in the squad.

We couldn't seem to get the ball off Harps for the first half hour, though their chances were limited. Houston's header in the box was a great opportunity to go ahead mind.
Second half, we came a lot more into it and began to control the game. In saying that, we just did our usual away from home thing of passing about a lot, without showing much intention of attacking. Shiels would have been happy with a draw.
Two well taken goals, nice to see Darren Cole off the mark, he looks a quality player.
Lovely pass from Patterson to find McEneff, who rounded Gallagher and scored.

The referee, Ray Matthews, had a poor game IMO. Some very strange decisions, mostly to the benefit of Harps.

A special mention for Eoin Toal, 18 years old and made his first start last night. Got him from Armagh, and looks a real talent.

On Harps, I think they'll be ok this season. I'd hazard a guess that they'll finish above Bohs.

I'd agree with a lot of that, except it's funny, we said pretty much the opposite of the ref in that he gave an awful lot of kind decisions to Derry. Safe to say, he was just brutal all round.

Chances were limited for both teams. Aside from two soft goals from a Harps perspective, I thought we probably had the better of the few chances in the game. Ger Doherty made a couple of important saves, one on one from both Caolan McAleer and BJ Banda and then Houston as mentioned was unlucky to put a header just wide of the post.

Eoin Toal looks a cracking young player.

It was decent entertainment though from two young sides. But Harps really missed McCourts guile in there and the sooner Barry Molloy is fully fit again the better as we really need him in centre mid.

[oriel]

In fairness to Dundalk your incentive was to move 15 points clear of 3rd place, ours was to fight to make sure we make it into Europe next year.
I'd call that two pretty different motivators.
That being said you were at home and SK couldn't have been happy with performance.
Might have a few pound on number of goals in your next match.

I hadn't realised until Monday that this was Rovers first win in Oriel Park in the league since 2011, seems a long time, but I also remember it was a long time when Dundalk beat Rovers at home in 2013 from the last win too at the venue v Rovers, granted 7 years were in the FD though.