KENNY SHIELS SAYS his Derry City team are happy to stay below the radar, insisting that they thrive on an apparent lack of media coverage.
According to Shiels, Derry are one of the “lesser” teams in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division when compared to Dundalk, Cork City, Shamrock Rovers and even Limerick and Bray Wanderers.
That’s in spite of the fact that the Candystripes’ only two league defeats in their last 21 outings both came against champions Dundalk last season, at the end of which they finished third in the table.
Derry have made a promising start to the 2017 campaign, taking maximum points from away games against Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers. Their only home game so far — against Limerick — was abandoned due to floodlight failure at their temporary home at Maginn Park in Buncrana.
While playing down his own side’s aspirations in the aftermath of Friday’s 1-0 win over Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght, Shiels described the Hoops as title contenders along with Dundalk and Cork City, with Limerick and Bray Wanderers making up the best of the rest in the former Kilmarnock manager’s opinion.
“We’ve lost one [game] in 18,” Shiels said. “It’s not a bad record but sometimes if you go too far everybody is after you. Everybody is after Dundalk and now Shamrock Rovers fall into that category. Everybody’s after Shamrock Rovers, everybody’s after Dundalk, everybody’s after Cork — they’re the big three, and then you’ve got Limerick and Bray.
“Pat’s have dipped a little bit, but those five in particular, people want to do well against them because they’re the better teams. Players want to play against better teams. Being one of the lesser ones, we’ll continue to use that. As long as we have our imagination and invention and all of the things that it takes to win a game, we’ll continue to do that.”
Nevertheless, Shiels says his team are overlooked by the media but it’s something they enjoy: “The Dublin press don’t usually talk too much about us. I brought [the players] in the papers before the [Shamrock Rovers] game and I said to them: ‘Look, this is not a Dublin press, this is a national press.’
“It was all about Shamrock Rovers, it was all about Dundalk, it was all about Cork. Every week it’s the same and we love that. We stay below the radar. We’re just a modest, wee country team and we’ll try to do our best on our trips to the capital.”
Two Derry natives and former Derry City players will be on the opposite side tonight when Shiels’ team face Dundalk in Buncrana. Michael Duffy is a new arrival at Dundalk from Celtic, while playmaker Patrick McEleney — who scored the only goal of the Lilywhites’ game against Limerick on Friday — left the Brandywell for Oriel Park last year.
“It’s a big ask but hopefully we can do our best against them,” Shiels said ahead of tonight’s meeting with Stephen Kenny’s side. “They’ve signed two Derry lads who we couldn’t afford. They’re a fantastic club, obviously.
“A Derry lad scoring [on Friday] for them again — that hurts. I went to watch them against Sligo last Saturday night, two Derry lads scored the first two goals. That hurts because we want to promote good young local players but, at the end of the day, if we can’t compete financially we just have to dig in and bring more young ones through.”
– Additional reporting by Harry Manning
