Weekend 24th to 28th October

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Wonder which of their last two games Derry will be more focused on?

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We're decimated with injuries at present, with the likes of Patching and Patrick McEleney playing tonight despite clearly not being fit. Hoban warmed up, but obviously wasn't able to come on.
We also will need to better Pat's result in Sligo. So it's out of our hands and probably unlikely we get finish ahead of them.
In that case, I'd have no issues putting out a makeshift squad next week, and concentrating on the cup final.

On tonight, we were actually alright. Don't think we deserved to lose really. Anang did have a great save to keep us out.
I can accept tonight's result. As said already, it's not tonight that cost us. And in truth, we should never have been this close to the end of the season and still be in with a shout of winning the league.
With players going/out of contract, it's another rebuild we need for next year.

For Derry to end up leagueless over the last 2 years a cup win and Higgins staying will barely be bittersweet. St Pats look like they are growing in to a side than will be consistantly challenging over the next 'era' and wont be as brittle, they will take opportunities given. Rovers have the resources to be regular favourites too but I think they need a change from Bradley purely to get that ruthless edge, real hunger back. Derry if they can get the right manager in will have to tough it to get their hands on silverware a lot more than recently. Galway if the add a couple more strings to their bow and could nick in to the mix for a title ala Cork 2017. Sligo are building and fair play fo the faith they have shown in the manager, easy to take a long term strategy but panic if relegation looms. Drogheda are on an upward trend and Waterford can consoldate further. Cork could find it really hard coming up when you see the sort of competaviness across the board. Hard to know with Bohs. IF Dundalk continue to exist and the rest of the 1st Division looking for promotion, I think we are entering a very dfficult time to be able stay up with no obvious cannon fodder to get ahead, currently Bohs maybe. Definitely oppotunities lost for Derry, to loyal when not getting conging and consistant improvement from that squad. Injuries may be hurting now but they were just hanging in there and not making Shels pretty awful form count.

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Originally Posted by CorribsideSteve

A brilliant match tonight in Terryland. We really should have scored 4 or 5, but our inability to score freely has been our biggest blight this season. Having said that, the lads never gave up and got their reward. No Europe, but completely safe, and good foundations for next season.

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Thought we played some great stuff up until we got the second and then could barely string 3 pssses together after that. The last half hour was a complete onslaught. Great stuff.

Hard to know if Derry will now "roll over" for Duff and prioritise the cup final. I would be hoping its a "no way are yis wining the league on our patch" attitude and lads "ye are playing for your cup final places" from Ruairi. Rovers wins in Dundalk are a rare commodity.

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Originally Posted by Nah Nah Nah Nah

Thought we played some great stuff up until we got the second and then could barely string 3 pssses together after that. The last half hour was a complete onslaught. Great stuff.

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We fell asleep completely after equalizing and getting ourselves back in to the match, for ye to go back in front at 2-1. That was very disappointing. But it completely sparked us into action. Walshy coming on certainly helped also. It's a pity we couldn't have nicked a late winner but a draw is the least we deserved. Patrick Hickey is a joy to watch though. He was able to control and take down virtually every long ball on his chest, or get his head to it. He was my MOTM.

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Originally Posted by Kingswood Rover

Hard to know if Derry will now "roll over" for Duff and prioritise the cup final. I would be hoping it’s a "no way are yis wining the league on our patch" attitude and lads "ye are playing for your cup final places" from Ruairi. Rovers wins in Dundalk are a rare commodity.

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There’s no guarantee they beat Drogheda in the final. With that in mind they need to get a result next week and hope Sligo do them a favour or they won’t be playing in Europe next season so I highly doubt they’ll roll over

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Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract

There’s no guarantee they beat Drogheda in the final. With that in mind they need to get a result next week and hope Sligo do them a favour or they won’t be playing in Europe next season so I highly doubt they’ll roll over

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Yes ands there is that as well and if Rovers do get a win tomorrow night a draw is no good for Shels if Rovers then subsequently beat Waterford at home.

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Originally Posted by SwanVsDalton

Higgins long ago lost the faith of the fans but I'd say this has sealed that deal. Not sure who you'd replace him with mind. Derry likely in for a barren spell with improvements elsewhere. The squad, while looking strong and costing a lot, is old, thin in spots and perma-injured. Not great.

Weirdly not a bad performance relative to some of the recent ones. The damage was done against Drogs, Galway, Sligo, Boys etc etc. That save by Anang something else, although having seen the replay Duffy should probably score regardless.

A few Pats fans being very aggro at the end, decent numbers of empty bottles thrown and that. Was a bit surprised. Not a terribly big deal, just mentioning cause if it was in the Brandywell those pearls wouldn't go unclutched. ;)

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Plenty being thrown onto the pitch towards the Pats crowd too, including flares, which, if we want to get into Pearl clutching, could have injured someone. Can’t swear to it but I thought the first items thrown came from the Derry side. Poor stewarding to let the Pats fans down that end of the pitch anyway.

On the match, a tough game and we had some nervy moments at the end, plus Derry hitting the crossbar with a cracking effort. Derry kicked lumps out of Cian Levy all night, just couldn’t handle him. I think I counted three yellow cards given for fouls on him.

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Originally Posted by TonyD

On the match, a tough game and we had some nervy moments at the end, plus Derry hitting the crossbar with a cracking effort. Derry kicked lumps out of Cian Levy all night, just couldn’t handle him. I think I counted three yellow cards given for fouls on him.

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I reckon Kian Leavy must be the most fouled player in the league this year. Constantly gets booted around every game by players that can’t handle his dribbling ability

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Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract

I reckon Kian Leavy must be the most fouled player in the league this year. Constantly gets booted around every game by players that can’t handle his dribbling ability

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If he could only improve on his decision making, far too often he runs into cul-de-sacs or mistimes his passes.

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Originally Posted by kksaints

If he could only improve on his decision making, far too often he runs into cul-de-sacs or mistimes his passes.

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Yeah I’ve no doubt he’d still be in England if he improved on that and his end product

Derry are the raging hot favourites. Could be a repeat of their big final win a few years back. No guarantee though. Sligo is a potential banana skin for Pat's.
If Derry wind up missing out on Europe through the league, all the pressure will be on them going into the final.

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Originally Posted by TonyD

Plenty being thrown onto the pitch towards the Pats crowd too, including flares, which, if we want to get into Pearl clutching, could have injured someone. Can’t swear to it but I thought the first items thrown came from the Derry side. Poor stewarding to let the Pats fans down that end of the pitch anyway.

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If you're talking about behind the goal, it was all Pats fans. I was standing pretty much at the barrier. It was then the same fans who headed over to the Derry fans corner. Like I said, not a terribly big deal but just surprised. Don't associate it with Pats, at least against us.

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Originally Posted by TonyD

Derry kicked lumps out of Cian Levy all night, just couldn’t handle him. I think I counted three yellow cards given for fouls on him.

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Was it Leavy on the Idehen and Boyce bookings? Not sure I'd say kicked lumps as Idehen (rightly booked) didn't even catch him since Leavy hurdled it and Boyce got a good chunk of the ball. But aye he left em for dust.

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Originally Posted by legendz

Derry are the raging hot favourites. Could be a repeat of their big final win a few years back. No guarantee though. Sligo is a potential banana skin for Pat's.
If Derry wind up missing out on Europe through the league, all the pressure will be on them going into the final.

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and If Drogheda qualify for Europe on a fairly tight budget some heads will be turned again and more 'investors' or multi-club efforts will be nosing around. If a new club owner was found a bit short on personal disposable wealth those sniffing around for a bargain ie equity for cash flow injection, might get a hearing, maybe even before fan groups would, hypothetically speaking.

End of season game at the RSC last night with it looking like a 0-0 draw until Clarke headed in from a free kick to put Bohs 1-0 up with 10 minutes to go. Waterford woke up near the end and got an equaliser deep in stoppage time with a great shot from sub Glenfield into the roof of the net so good way to finish off our home games. We will finish 7th so happy with that overall in our first season back in the Premier even though our form in the last few months has been poor with only 8 points picked up from last 12 league games which cost us a challenge for European football.

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Originally Posted by SwanVsDalton

If you're talking about behind the goal, it was all Pats fans. I was standing pretty much at the barrier. It was then the same fans who headed over to the Derry fans corner. Like I said, not a terribly big deal but just surprised. Don't associate it with Pats, at least against us.



Was it Leavy on the Idehen and Boyce bookings? Not sure I'd say kicked lumps as Idehen (rightly booked) didn't even catch him since Leavy hurdled it and Boyce got a good chunk of the ball. But aye he left em for dust.

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No I wasn’t talking about behind the goal, tbh I didn’t see anything being thrown from either side from behind the goal, but I was looking at the end of the stand where the Derry fans were. I was further up in the stand, just on the far side of the directors box. Definitely missiles coming both ways. As I say, my impression was they came from the Derry fans initially. Not excusing the stupidity of the Pats scrotes who deliberately went down to that end to taunt the Derry fans, when they should have been celebrating our own incredible run in to the season.

So what some people think, is that Dundalk who have nothing to play for will be more of a threat against a Rovers side hitting form and going for a title vs. a Derry side at home who still need to finish Top 3 to guarantee Europe and surely will not want to lose at home to their title rivals all season - Shels. Rovers are going to nick this one at the death either by a point or on GD.

Would Patrick Hickey not be the most fouled player in the league in recent games? 7/8 given in first half last night. Loads of fouls on him v Dundalk also.

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Originally Posted by ger121

a Derry side at home who still need to finish Top 3 to guarantee Europe and surely will not want to lose at home to their title rivals all season - Shels. Rovers are going to nick this one at the death either by a point or on GD.

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Good man Ger, keep those positive vibes coming.
Shels should win it as derry are a shambles at the moment, clearly not playing to their full potential.
They had 2 games at home to last week to close out the league and they couldn't get it done.
I'd imagine they'll get raided in the off season for their better,fit player's like Whelan, O'Reilly & Maher.
Rovers should beat the relegated dundalk but it won't be straightforward- The noises coming out of Rovers are that all the players are switched on at the moment (bit late says you!!)

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Originally Posted by placid casual

Good man Ger, keep those positive vibes coming.
Shels should win it as derry are a shambles at the moment, clearly not playing to their full potential.
They had 2 games at home to last week to close out the league and they couldn't get it done.
I'd imagine they'll get raided in the off season for their better,fit player's like Whelan, O'Reilly & Maher.
Rovers should beat the relegated dundalk but it won't be straightforward- The noises coming out of Rovers are that all the players are switched on at the moment (bit late says you!!)

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On the topic of Colm Whelan, he came on at half time last night and was probably Derry’s most dangerous player. A real handful for defenders to deal with him, could be huge for whoever he’s playing for next year with a full pre-season behind him as long as he’s seen the back of his injury woes