Peter Hutton has insisted that Derry City will not give up on the teams above them following the defeat at Tallaght at the weekend.

Derry needed to win in Dublin if they were to have any realistic chance of catching Shamrock Rovers in fourth place, but with the gap now at 11 points, those prospects are slim to say the least. Hutton however, is refusing to give up the chase. 

“It makes it that wee bit harder,” he admitted. “We’re going to try and accumulate as many points as we can between now and the end if the season and see where it takes us.

“It’s inevitable that you’re going to get beat sometime so it’s about the response. The last time we asked them for a response was after the Shakhytor disappointment so we will be asking them for the same now.”

The Candy Stripes produced a free-flowing display of attacking football against Shamrock Rovers only to end up on the wrong side of a 2-0 defeat after missing several chances throughout the game.

On the night when Pat Fenlon made his first appearance in the Rovers’ dugout, Derry’s finishing deserted them and they were punished by second half goals from Ronan Finn and Dean Kelly.

However, it was the performance of the Dublin official which upset Hutton most of all.

“The amount of decisions that went Shamrock Rovers way was dubious to say the least,” he said afterwards. “It was a shocking performance by the referee. There was no call for some of his decisions. 

“It wasn’t just one or two; it was a lot of decisions. You just call for consistency but he’s booked Mark Timlin for a challenge and he’s let one go on our player two minutes later. It’s disgraceful.”

Hutton’s frustrations were shared by Patrick McEleney, who insisted that the official’s performance frustrated the players.

“It just makes you angry," he explained. “I couldn’t work it out. He saw things that I saw right beside me and he just didn’t give them. 

"One time he didn’t give a handball because their player said the ball hit his chest, so he’s listening to them. It’s unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”

Cork City are the visitors to the Brandywell on Friday and will travel north filled with confidence after their victory over St. Patrick’s Athletic renewed their title hopes. 

City’s run of games in the next few weeks is challenging with Cork City, Dundalk and St. Patrick’s Athletic all on the horizon. But Hutton is looking forward to the challenge. 

“These series of fixtures are all very tough games,” he said. “They don’t come much harder than Cork who will come up buoyed by recent results. All we have to do is focus on ourselves."

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