Derry boss admits ‘We’ll play ugly if need be’

Galway United vs. Derry City  |  Eamonn Deacy Park  |  Friday, 7:45pm

Tiernan Lynch admits his team may have to play ugly to get a result at Galway United tomorrow night.

Eamonn Deacy Park has not been a welcoming place for Derry City in recent years, and particularly last year when they five points lost at Galway put a huge dent in the Candystripes’ title hopes.

John Caulfield’s side are impressing again this season, and Lynch knows that his players may have to develop a different side to their game if they are to get a positive result.

“To go where we want to go you have to have every part of the game,” he explained. “You can't just be a team that wants to play in possession and play nice football when teams let you. You have to roll your sleeves up and play ugly and you've got to put your face sometimes where it hurts. We need to show our fans on Friday night that we have that side to our games."

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City imploded spectacularly against Drogheda United last week, to bring an end to their four-game unbeaten run, and Lynch is adamant his players have to learn from the experience.

“Galway are probably very similar to Drogheda and we know what we're getting,” he stated. “They're a team that is very honest, very hard working. They do a lot around their front two or three. The big lad Hickey causes all sorts of problems with his aerial threat and runners off him, so we know the way they play and they're very effective with it and they have to take great credit for that. A bit like Drogheda, so it's another one where you have to be good in both boxes.

“You need to be strong on set pieces, need to try and win our duels and then we have to try as best we can to impose our game on them in possession and that's what we'll look to do.”

“They are a typical Galway side under John. They roll their sleeves up. Everyone gives 100 per cent and they're honest and hard working. They play very much percentages and get the ball into areas they can cause problems. They don't give too much away at the back, so it's not dissimilar to last week and we have a tough game on our hands.”

A five-point gap currently exists between the top five and Derry City in sixth in the Premier Division, and Lynch knows the importance of that gap reducing rather than widening.

“At this stage we can't get too carried away with the league table,” he said. “You absolutely don't ignore it but you have to try and get the things we need to get right. For 63 minutes last week I couldn't have asked any more of the boys. I thought they carried the gameplan out to a fine art.

“We actually started to see real signs of the things we've been working on, controlling games and the shape we wanted to play. We were good in possession and created a couple of chances. We know against teams that play a back five or a back seven or whatever it may be, you're only going to get two or three chances in a game.

“I thought we did quite well with the opportunities that we did get, cutting them open to create those, so I was really pleased. It was probably one of those situations, even now when you look back on it, it was eight minutes of complete and utter madness.

“The disappointing part for us as a group was they all came from second phases of set pieces. That's something we had worked so hard on all week. We knew what Drogheda's threats were - a bit like Galway on Friday night, we know what they're threats are, and we're disappointed we didn't deal with those threats.”

City will be without Liam Boyce and dam O’Reilly through suspension tomorrow night, while Pat Hoban remains absent due to illness and injury.

Meanwhile, Lynch admits that Ben Doherty could need an operation to overcome a knee problem that has kept him out of recent games.

“He went for a scan,” he said. “He's now just waiting to see a specialist to see what the next stages of his rehabilitation are. Until he sees the specialist, we're unsure. We actually don't know if this is going to be a rest and recovery period or whether he will need an operation.”