‘Bruised egos can help us!' - Derry captain Connolly

Drogheda United vs. Derry City  |  Weavers Park  |  Friday, 7.45pm

Mark Connolly believes that bruised egos could be the driving force which lead Derry City to greater success this season.

The Candystripes have gone from bottom of the Premier Division earlier in the season, to joint top after three successive victories, and they head towards the halfway point of the season in their best form, both individually and collectively.

Connolly believes that the pain of that early season form, and the manager’s challenges to his players since then, have brought strong responses from players determined to show that they belong at the club. And that winning attitude can only lead to greater things down the line.

“A big thing for the manager that he deserves credit on is that the people he has brought in are all good people who have played at a very high level,” he explained.

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“They all have egos, which you need to play at the top level, but they are all good people, and I’ve said it before, it doesn’t matter if you’re 17 years of age or 33 or 34, of you’re not playing well it hurts, and if you are dropped or taken out of the team, it hurts. But if we want to be winning anything and if we want Derry City to be successful, we all need to be pulling in the same direction.

“There’s a lot of hurt there when you’re not playing, but you need a reaction and the club is far bigger than any player that walks through the door. That’s a big thing that the manager has got in place now, he has brought in lads who are all doing that. There are numerous players who have been in and out of the team, and they keep coming back and they keep working hard and at the moment they are certainly getting their rewards for it and long may it continue.

“It’s amazing because when you’re winning football matches, you’re coming in every day and you see boys with a smile on their face; it’s a lot more enjoyable coming into Owenbeg whenever you’ve lost or haven’t played well. It’s a mentality thing, and when you’ve good players and you’ve signed good players, boys who have experienced higher levels and experienced big occasions, that their mentality will always be that if something good doesn’t happen, they will try to put it right, and at the moment, I think everyone can see that.”

Changing the record

Derry City head to Weavers Park aiming to change the narrative in this fixture, with Kevin Doherty’s side enjoying three successive victories over them. The 3-1 loss to Drogheda at the Brandywell back in April was a particularly sore one for Connolly and his team mates to take, and the defender is looking to set the record straight tomorrow night.

“First and foremost, Drogheda are a good team, and they are up there at the top end of the table for a reason,” he acknowledged.

“They are a very, very difficult team to play against, and we have lost the last few against them. The last one was especially difficult to take because it felt like for 60-70 minutes we were completely in control, of the game and we went 1-0 up, but there were 10 minutes of madness with a sending off and you end up conceding two set-pieces and from a long throw. It wasn’t ideal and it was a night which hurt a lot of people, and there was a big reaction from it.

“On Friday night, we know it’s not going to be an easy game, and we know going there it’s going to be very difficult, but the way we’ve been playing recently, we’re a very, very solid unit now and we have got a lot of boys working extremely hard. We’re going there full of confidence and hopefully we can go there and get a win.”

In such a competitive division, Connolly knows that results can change from week to week, but he is encouraged by the consistency which he and his team mates have finally discovered.

“It has taken a bit of time and it was obviously frustrating at the start of the season not to be picking up results, and we probably didn’t play as well as we know we can do, especially with the talent we have in the dressing room,” he stated. “But we have managed three wins in a row now, and to be fair, in general, bar the Waterford game, the six or seven games we have been playing really well and a lot of people can see the work that has been going in and the team gelling together. The new players are all getting used to the league and getting used to the new surrounding that they have come into.”