Derby gives City of Derry the chance for respite
City of Derry vs. Belfast Harlequins
Today, 2:30pm
Judges Road
By Gary Ferry
The less said about the Aviva Stadium the better. That’s the feeling around Judges Road this week head of City of Derry’s first home game of the season in the AIL.
After bad losses in the Ulster League in the build up to last week’s AIL opener against Wanderers, Trevor Will took his team to the Aviva Stadium admitting that it was a step into the unknown, with plenty still to find out about his own players, never mind the opposition.
It turned out to be a game they might never forget, but will still try to regardless. The 71-3 loss was damning, and this week coach Richard McCarter admitted that the result was an embarrassing one.
“It is still early days,” he told the Derry News. “We knew the Ulster League fixtures were going to be a tough ask for us because the teams were in the top half of that league, so we sort of said all along that the results in that didn’t matter, it was all about performance and working towards the All-Ireland. But obviously Saturday was a bit of a disappointing one for us. It just seems as if we were outclassed in every aspect of the game.
“We knew it was going to be tough because Wanderers are a good side but to lose 71-3, it doesn’t matter because it’s still pretty embarrassing, especially to be on the main pitch in the Aviva Stadium. The boys and the coach wouldn’t have wanted that obviously, but it means now that we have to work really hard to out things right, especially now with the home game coming up this weekend. We know how important the home games are, and being an Ulster derby against Harlequins, it’s one we desperately want to win and get the season back on track hopefully.”
After shipping 65 points against Ballymena and the 71 points against Wanderers on successive weekends, there is the anger that the players’ confidence might start to suffer, even before the season has really kicked off.
“It can do because we do have a very young squad this year,” McCarter admitted. “It is about the bigger picture with us in terms of developing players for a few years’ time. But at the same time you want to be doing well in the present and it’s not very enjoyable for guys to be getting stuffed week in and week out, no matter how experienced they are. But it will come; it just needs a wee bit of patience and the boys need to buy into that.
“Last year we were in a similar position and we were able to turn that around so hopefully we can get back on track this week and start to build and hopefully we can turn it around a bit quicker than we did this year.”
Unique position
City of Derry find themselves in the unique positon of being the only local sporting institution with a home ground this season. Derry City are currently playing their home fixtures at Maginn Park in Buncrana, while Institute’s Riverside Stadium pitch was destroyed in the recent floods. McCarter agreed that a home tie can have an important psychological effect on the players, especially with home fans there to cheer them on.
“It definitely does,” he said. “In the All-Ireland and we’ve said this for the last number of years you’ve got to win your home games or you’ve got to get as many points out of the home games as possible, and it’s no different this year. Saturday will be a big test but it’s always a big test for other teams coming to Judges Road as well. We’ve got to make it as difficult for the opposition as we can and a win on Saturday will certainly do wonders for the confidence.”
McCarter has a taste of first team management himself last season but has stepped aside to help with the coaching aspect of things going forward. While Derry struggled on the pitch at times last year, there was not much consistency off it either and McCarter believes that with Will now in charge for the long term, results on the pitch should soon start to improve.
“You need that consistency on the playing front and you need stability behind the scenes as well,” he stated. “I think Trevor is planning to be here for a couple of years so hopefully that will help with the development of these young players. The fact that it’s going to be the same coaching staff will hopefully attract a few players also but it is a work in progress with us over the next few years because we have lost so many players in the last two or three seasons and they have been difficult to replace, so we do have to build from the bottom up now.
“We are going to have weekends when it will be very difficult and frustrating for us but hopefully it will reap the rewards in a season or two.”
Team News
Gary Boyle and Conor Cummings both suffered injuries in the defeat to Wanderers last week so are considered doubtful for this weekend’s game, but Richard Baird and Sam Duffy are set to return which should make a significant difference to the Derry pack. New Zealander Tyler Rogers-Hilden could also make his full debut having made an appearance at the Aviva Stadium against Wanderers.