‘Rome wasn't built in a day’ - Derry manager Tiernan Lynch

Derry City vs. Bohemians  |  Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, Friday, 7:45pm

Tiernan Lynch has reassured fans that Derry City will get better with every passing game as he prepares for his competitive debut against Bohemians at the Brandywell tomorrow night.

The City boss has had almost a week to mull over what exactly went wrong at Tolka Park last Friday where he watched his team fall to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of champions Shelbourne.

It was far from the ideal start for Lynch, but he believes that he and has players have learned a lot from the experience.

“I can’t wait to get this game (Bohemians) under our belts,” he stated. “I don’t want to talk about us being overly bad on Friday night because I think there were definitely signs, and things that we will no doubt build on and improve on. There are also elements of things we needed to work on this week and make sure we can get better at.

“It’s exciting, we’re really looking to getting home, we’re looking forward to really getting the fans behind us and trying to excite them as best we can. We can’t get frustrated in this because we know where we want to go and we know what we want to do but Rome wasn’t built in a day and we just have to keep getting through all the things that we’re trying to implement.”

Lynch understands the gloom amongst some City fans following the poor performance and defeat, but is confident that the team will learn and get better because of it.

“There are times when you’ve had a great week at training and you don’t perform on a Friday night, and we’re going to get lots of them,” he explained.

“The big thing from my end is making sure we give 100% and making sure there’s a hunger and a desire. I thought on Friday night, albeit we gave away stupid goals, I think that hunger was there and I think that desire was there. There were good learning curves in there for me also and being away from home in Dublin and things that go with that and that’s something we can build on, that’s something that we can’t shy away from as a group, as a team, as a football club. That’s something that we need to embrace.”

The City boss will have more players available to him this week, and he is expecting a better showing as a result.

“Every time we play, you’re hoping you will see little improvements,” he continued. “There are people now available this week who weren’t available last week. You’re also going to start getting competition for places. The standards and demands of the club have to be through the roof and I have to adhere to them like everybody else. This club needs to be successful and we have to learn to deal with those demands.”

Tomorrow night will be the first time that Lynch will experience a packed Brandywell on match night and he believes that factor could help drive him and the team onto a good result against a confident Bohemians side.

“Any success that we try to bring here will be all based around the support and that 12th man,” he acknowledged. “The big thing we talk about as a squad and a team is that you’re always going to have bad nights and you’re always going to play badly, but there’s no excuses for not working hard.

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"The people I have spoken to have all said the same thing – the Brandywell faithful, as log as they see the hard work and as long as they see that you’re putting the effort in and that pulling that shirt over your head actually means something, that’s half the battle.”

Meanwhile, Lynch admits he hasn’t given up hope of adding to his squad before the transfer deadline closes on February 22.

“There’s a huge amount of work going on here in the background,” he revealed. “We would love to try and do something, but what I’m not doing is trying to bring someone in for the sake of bringing someone in. Even after one game, I’ve learned very quickly that it’s a certain type of character that needs to come into this football club, it’s not just about good footballers and where they’ve played, it’s about having a certain type of character to do what we want to do and go where we want to go.”