DERRY City manager Ruaidhrí Higgins was left fuming after his side missed another opportunity to move into top spot in the Premier Division on Monday evening.
While admitting that John Russell’s Sligo Rovers side were excellent on the night, he was as much frustrated that City were second best in the opening 45 minutes of the clash at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.
“Extremely disappointed. The first-half performance baffled me. It’s not acceptable,” stated Higgins.
“It’s a really poor performance, considering what we have to fight for and what we have to play for. We had the opportunity to take control of the league table but we haven’t done it.
“We were second to every second ball, we lacked energy and we were chasing our tails from then on.”
At half-time, the Candystripes faithful rightfully booed their team off the pitch and the Limavady native was also quick to point out that he may have got his team selection wrong.
“Should I have made changes from Friday night (a 1-1 home draw with Bohemians) to freshen the team up? Probably, in hindsight. You always have to self-reflect. You have to look at yourself,” he acknowledged.
“The boos were absolutely justified. Of course they were. The minimum requirement that supporters want to see is players fighting for their club and we didn’t do that in the first half.
“It has happened too many times and we have missed another big opportunity.”
Derry now have difficult away trips to bottom side Dundalk and in-form St Patrick’s Athletic, before concluding their campaign with a potential title decider at home to long-time leaders Shelbourne.
Higgins expects his players to bounce back at Oriel Park on Friday evening and feels they’ll have to win their three remaining games to harbour any hopes of claiming their first top-flight title since 1997.
“It’s a hard one to take but what do you do? You’ve got to keep going, keep fighting, and certainly show more fight than what we did in the first half,” he added.
“It’s been an awful long time since the club won the league. We were and still are in the best position we have been in for a long time in terms of trying to win one so that will be our focus.
“We’ll probably have to win all three games I would imagine now to win it. That’s our focus. We had the opportunity to take control of the league table but we haven’t done it but we’re still not dead yet.
“You can either shrivel up or stick your chest out and stand up to the challenge. I hope that what we decide to do is stand up and be brave and approach the last three games with no inhibitions.”
“As I said, the first half performance baffled me tonight (Monday) to be honest. It’s not acceptable.”
The former Republic of Ireland coach now just wants his players to dust themselves down and get ready for their trip to Dundalk, who he admits will be a tough test, with Jon Daly’s men knowing a defeat would relegate them to the First Division.
“They’re still fighting for their lives. It will be really tough,” he explained. “We had a brilliant win down there last year so we know we’re capable of going down there and winning. However, there would need to be a big improvement on tonight’s performance if we’re going to do that. Hopefully we can do that.
“We’ve got big boys in our dressing room. Before you look elsewhere you have to self-reflect and self-analyse and (ask) could we individually do more? And when you do more as an individual, collectively it helps - it’s not rocket science but tonight (Monday) we were short. For 45 minutes I hated what I saw.
“We have no other option but to keep going, keep fighting and look no further than Friday to try and get a big win.”
