Lynch settling old scores as Derry face St. Patrick’s Athletic

St. Patrick’s Athletic vs. Derry City | Richmond Park | Tonight, 7:45pm

Tiernan Lynch is in the process of settling old scores in Dublin, and after beating Shelbourne at Tolka Park at the weekend, he is hoping for further redemption at St. Patrick’s Athletic tonight.

The Derry City boss drew some personal satisfaction from Friday’s win over the champions, the scene of his first game, and first loss, as manager back in February. Michael Duffy’s seventh goal of the season took the Candystripes back up to fourth place in the Premier Division and ended a four-game winless run at a crucial stage of the season.

Lynch and his players now head to Richmond Park, where they suffered a 2-0 loss back in March, a night when all the big decisions went against the visitors, with Pat’s awarded two penalties and City midfielder Carl Winchester sent off. Putting that right with a victory tonight is very much on Lynch’s mind.

“That was obviously something that stuck in our throats a little bit,” he said after Friday’s victory. “If truth be told, if it hadn’t been my first game, we wouldn’t have been out for the second half. It’s a learning curve. It was something that we felt we wanted to put right. We had an old score to settle and thankfully we did that.”

“This is what happens in football. You lose one or two or draw and panic sometimes sets in, and people start thinking it’s a catastrophe. I think the big thing in this league is always remaining calm and not getting too carried away with the highs, and not getting too low with the lows.

“As we’ve said all along, we just need to find a little bit of consistency, which isn’t too easy in this league, because there are so many good teams. We have a massive week ahead of us but it’s just one game at a time for us. We have now ticked one game off and I couldn’t be prouder of the players, but we have to go and do the same on Monday.”

Lynch made a point of praising referee Neil Doyle after Friday’s game, with tonight’s official set to be Mark Houlihan.

“I told him after the game that he was absolutely outstanding,” he said. “It was probably the best referees’ performance since I’ve been here. There was fairness right across the board, there were decisions that went against us, there were decisions that went against the., but I thought over the 90 minutes, and not just because we won the game, but I thought he was spot on.”

The importance of Friday’s display is not lost on Lynch, who understands the importance of momentum in a very difficult Premier Division.

“I think it was probably two completely different sides of the team,” he explained. “In the first half I thought we were superb. It was probably our best footballing performance of the season.

"We were brave, we moved the ball, we got on it, and probably the one thing we were disappointed with was that we didn’t create more chances from our dominance. In the second half after we scored, I thought we showed a different side of us. We got compact, rolled our sleeves up, put our heads where it hurt and showed what it meant for us to wear that shirt. I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

Sadou Diallo returned to the starting line-up on Friday for the first time in three months and is certain to be in consideration again following a commanding role in midfield. The 26-year-old has missed a huge chunk of the season already after suffering a broken arm at Sligo Rovers, and seems eager to make up for lost time.

“I thought he was absolutely outstanding,” Lynch stated. “He got on the ball, he was brave, he made us play, he kept his calm and he kept us ticking over.

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"I thought he and Winnie (Carl Winchester) were excellent and we probably kept him on the pitch longer than we would like liked, but he didn’t want to come off and that’s probably a good sign. Gavin (Whyte) was probably the same. It was extremely warm out there and that was a big performance physically.”