Derry City closing in on 30-year defensive record!

Derry City will equal a long-standing club record if they keep a clean sheet against Finn Harps tomorrow night.

The Candystripes have not conceded a league goal in their last five games, and another shut out tomorrow night will tie the club’s record for consecutive clean sheets in the League of Ireland.

In 37 years as a League of Ireland club, City have managed six successive clean sheets in the league on three occasions, and two of those came in one Premier Division season.

Back in the 1991/92 season, under Roy Coyle, City managed six successive clean sheets twice in a very close period as they went on an incredible run of 15 clean sheets in 16 games in all competitions.

That record stood until it was equalled in 2010, when City played in the First Division under Stephen Kenny. However, it has been 30 years since City managed the feat in the Premier Division.

Since conceding in the 1-1 draw at Drogheda on August 19, Ruaidhri Higgins’ team have kept clean sheets against Shelbourne, UCD, Bohemians, Sligo Rovers and St. Patrick’s Athletic. In fact, Higgins’ team have conceded just one goal in their last seven, including FAI Cup ties, with Rory Gaffney’s goal for Shamrock Rovers in the recent quarterfinal tie at the Brandywell the only mark on an exemplary record.

“We defend from the front and we work hard and we’ve shown a side to us in recent weeks that people mightn’t have thought we had, but I knew we had,” manager Ruaidhri Higgins said. “It’s nice to be able to win in different ways.  When you watch a game back sometimes it’s not exactly what you thought, but when we watched it back, we were happy with our play up to a certain point in the first half and could have been two or three up.

“I know that Brian (Maher) has made a brilliant save but that was against the run of play and we had three or four good opportunities in the first half.

“In the second half we came under a bit of pressure but not as much as I felt on the sideline. We were actually in a bit more control than I thought. They hit the post from 20 yards, but outside of that they didn’t really trouble us. We showed maturity and stood up like men in the second half and fought it out.”