KENNY SHIELS EXPRESSED his delight at securing Derry City’s fifth consecutive home win of the season and dedicated Monday night’s victory over Bohemians to his late skipper Ryan McBride – who wore the number with such pride for his hometown club.
The significance of the number five was certainly not lost on the Candystripes boss and after the 3-1 victory over 10-man Bohs, he insisted that the fifth win was something which meant a lot to him personally with Ryan prominent in his thoughts in the build-up to the game.
“I wanted to get those five wins for Ryan,” he said. “Five wins now at Brandywell and he’s up in the cemetery looking down on us. We’ve got a 12th man in the stands, the crowd have been brilliant and for a Monday night, I think they did very well for us.
“And then we have a 12th man up in the cemetery looking down on us. To win five in a row at home is a great feeling and I’m delighted we got that fifth one. It meant a lot to me personally to achieve that and we did that tonight.
We got our five wins for the big man tonight and inside of me I’m really happy we did that.
“Now we go away from home and see what we can do in our next game. I’ve been thinking about it all day getting the fifth win on our comeback to Brandywell and I’m sure Ryan would be very proud of that.”
Shiels extended his remarkable winning record against the Gypsies to nine with the hard fought victory and he was delighted as the win took the club into third place above Waterford and three points behind leaders Dundalk who they meet on Friday night at Oriel Park.
The club are also the highest scorers in the league with 22 goals. However, as they prepare to travel away from ‘Fortress Brandywell’ does Shiels believe they can take that form on their travels?
“People forget we won our last two away games within a few days. It’s not as if we can’t play away from home. We’ve beaten Sligo, we’ve beaten Harps and Bohs away so there’s not many teams that have won three away games.
You have to look at the start of our season where we lost three out of our first four games I knew we weren’t ready and I said that to my staff that we had to try and paper over the cracks and try get something from the first four games. Luckily enough we got one victory.
“I think we must be right up there with most goals scored in the league. It takes us up to 22 and that’s the most in the league. Cork have 20. We’ve played five at home and five away so we got to Dundalk and see what happens.”
Derry City 3-1 Bohemians. Watch all the goals and highlights from the Brandywell on a night when the Candystripes stated their European claims. #soccerrepublic #greatestleagueintheworld #loi pic.twitter.com/wO3wxMykza
— Soccer Republic (@SoccRepublic) April 17, 2018
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