Shelbourne vs. Derry City
Tolka Park
Tomorrow, 7:45pm
The last Derry City player to score a goal at Tolka Park insists he doesn't care who scores tomorrow night, as long as the three points come back up the road to the Brandywell.
Ben Doherty scored a sensational goal to save a point for the Candystripes on their last visit to Tolka last June, one of five goals he scored in his first season back at the club. His fierce left-footed effort from the edge of the area salvaged a point for his team last summer, and extended a series of draws between Derry and Shelbourne that now stands at five consecutively since Ryan Graydon scored a winner at Tolka in March, 2022.
Doherty would love his goal drought, which currently stands at 32 games, to come to an end tomorrow, but he will be happy with any of his team mates scoring as long as Derry City win.
"Goals are good whenever they come around, but the ultimate goal now for Monday is three points and going down there and winning the game, so whoever scores I’m not too fussed, as long as we go down and we have a game plan, we'll execute it and hopefully we come out with the three points," he said.
“It’s a massive game, obviously with it being on TV it has given it extra wee lift," he added. "I don’t think there’s much other football on TV on Monday evening, so while we’re expecting a big crowd at Tolka Park, they'll be a big crowd also watching on TV.
“Our two games at Tolka last year were just two battle hardened games, we won the first game 1-0 and then I scored an equaliser late-on in the second game at Tolka, but every game against Shels just seems to be always tight affairs.
“I think having a competitive Shelbourne in the league is massive for everyone, but look, we're looking forward to the challenge on Monday.”
Doherty was at the pre-game press conference with Ruaidhri Higgins on Friday morning and agreed with his manager that it is by no means winner takes all tomorrow.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a must win,” he insisted. “But we obviously want to go down to Tolka aiming for the three points and that’s how we’ve prepared since the St Pat’s game. It’s something that we back ourselves in terms of having confidence to go down there with a game plan to get three points.
“But we’ll not be going to Tolka sitting off and rue missed chances and wondering why we didn't do this or that, we’ll be going to Tolka and we’ll be given everything and that’s the way these games have to be. As I said we’ll have a game plan and as players we have to go and execute that and hopefully it works in our favour on Monday night.”
Turbulent
Derry City players went through a turbulent few weeks due to their unexpected Europa Conference League defeat to Bruno's Magpies, only to respond emphatically with a dominant display against St. Patrick's Athletic in the FAI Cup at the Brandywell. For Doherty, those few days between defeat and victory shows the difficult side of football.
“We were in a crisis, we were an embarrassment, these were all things that were said about us after Europe, but then when you beat St Pat’s on the Sunday, people are starting to talk about trying to do a double," he reflected.
“The European result was obviously a kick in the teeth and I think the damage was obviously done in the first leg, but I don’t think we could be faulty in the second leg for our endeavour and commitment but we were just undone by a few refereeing decisions and then went down to ten men, but for us to bounce back on the Sunday, I thought it showed the character in our squad.
“I think without saying it or even talking about it, the boys knew that we need to put things right and get ourselves back on track for what we want to do this season and I think we did that against St Pat’s.
“Look, we’re sitting second in the league and we’re in the next round of the FAI Cup and things don’t look as bad as it did a few days prior to the St Pat’s game, but when you step away from things and zoom out of it, we’re still in a good position and there’s two trophies, which we’ll still be fighting for in the coming weeks and that fight starts on Monday night.”
