City of Derry 'craving a result, not a performance'

City of Derry Head Coach Neil Beddow admits his players are craving that winning feeling in the league after a losing streak that stretches back to the opening day of last season was extended by Carrick at Judges Road on Saturday.

You have to go back 13 months to August 31st, 2024 against Randalstown for the last time the 'Green & Black' scored a league win. The locals did end their search for a first victory since that game only last week in the Junior Shield against Monaghan but Saturday's defeat to a Carrick team expected to be in the mix for promotion means Derry find themselves bottom of the Championship Two table as the only side yet to pick up a point after three games.

Despite that there have been noticeable green shoots of recovery this season, that Shield victory being built on performance wise against Carrick at the weekend with a display that deserved more than the 13-29 scoreline it ultimately delivered.

There was plenty to be positive about for both coaching staff and supporters alike after a season's best display in a game that was in the mix until its final five minutes, but Beddow and his players aren't interested in 'positives', it's points they're after!

"Yeah but ultimately the boys are just craving a result, not a performance," replied the Derry Head Coach when asked if the players could take heart from an excellent display aginst Carrick.

"Yes the performance is important because it shows us as coaches that what we are doing in the paddock on a Tuesday and Thursday night is working but ultimately that doesn't show on the league table.

"It is very frustrating because ultimately results are what the players are judged on; it is what we will be judged on. It's a 'oh I see Derry have lost again' sort of thing. They don't see the endeavour and the effort that went in but, listen, as I said, we'll go Tuesday and Thursday again and be ready for next Saturday."

Derry had fought back from an early Carrick try to lead 10-5 and 13-12 thanks to Chris McCann's first half try before three more visiting tries in the final 12 minutes, including two in the final five minutes, finally took the game beyond the home side's reach.

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"For 70 minutes, and I have just said this to the boys after the game there, but that was head and shoulders our best performance of the season," added the Derry coach.

"It was probably the best performance the boys have put in for a couple of seasons, but ultimately you get nothing for performance. You get nothing for putting in your effort out there on the pitch.

"I'm still trying to get out of the lads that in the last 10 minutes or so when Carrick did get the score to move ahead of us, you could see a wee bit of deflation from us and that's historical stuff that I'm trying to to get out of the players.

"I've said that the to the boys after the game but, listen, we will go again Tuesday, Thursday and next Saturday and that's all we can do moving forward."

Beddow admitted the game's pivotal score had been the Carrick's second try which overturned Derry's 10-5 lead three minutes into first half injury time.

"Yeah and at 10-5 we knew it was the last play of the half," he explained, "Carrick had probably missed a couple of opportunities beforehand and I was maybe harsh on the guys at half-time saying 'we have got to notice that better' but they took the last opportunity of the four or five that they had.

"It was disappointing to go in 10-12 down but in saying that, genuinely for 70-75 minutes of the game, I thought we were potentially the better side. But certainly in the last 10 minutes they put a wee bit of class together to score a couple of tries.

"I don't know if it was 'wily heads' or not but they certainly executed well and they knew that when they got ahead how to continue to go ahead. That was something I mentioned last week (against Monaghan). When we got ahead we were maybe a bit tentative as to how the game was going to proceed but I thought Carrick should their experience in how they closed the game out."