DERRY CITY BOSS Tiernan Lynch is adamant that better days are ahead for his side but has confirmed that goalkeeper Brian Maher has suffered a setback in his recovery from a broken bone in his wrist.

Complications with how the initial injury healed after being placed in a cast means the Candystripes’ No.1 now requires surgery and could be on the sidelines for up to 10 weeks.

Ed Beach arrived on loan from Kilmarnock last month to deputise for Maher and his stint may need to be extended beyond this summer.

“Brian needs an operation. Brian got a scan last week. He obviously went into a cast and when he came out of the cast and got re-scanned the crack’s not healing so it looks like he’s going to have to go in and get an operation for it,” Lynch said after last night’s 0-0 draw with St Patrick’s Athletic.

“You’re probably looking [at] eight to 10 weeks, so it’s not a quick fix thing. But it’s something, as I say, young Eddie’s come in and done really well. But everybody knows, Brian Maher is arguably one of the best goalkeepers in the country so it’s a big loss for us.

“They’re all things that we’ve got to deal with and we’ve got to work our way through and find a little bit of confidence in each other again and stick together.”

Derry were good value for their draw at Richmond Park after losing three of their last four games to Bohemians, Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne. They remain sixth in the table ahead of Friday’s home game with Drogheda United, their last on the astro turf pitch at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium before they take up temporary residence at nearby by Celtic Park while a new surface is installed.

St Pat’s boss Stephen Kenny felt his side could have had a penalty for the coming together between Patrick McClean and Romal Palmer in the Derry box, and despite behing pleased with the effort of his players he accepted they didn’t do enough to make some of their second-half pressure count.

This was Derry’s first clean sheet of the season, a milestone that Lynch was pleased to reach after seven games while at the same time recognising that it took too long to be achieved.

“That’s not something that we’re tiptoeing around, that’s not something that we’re shying away from. We’ve been looking at our goals, we’ve been watching our goals, we’ve been looking at the things that we need to do better in certain situations.

“I think [last night] you’ve seen that. It’s the old do or die and in too many occasions the die wasn’t there. I think we got that [last night] and it’s something we have to go and build on.

“I don’t think it’s something that was ever done on purpose. I think it came from a lack of confidence. When you’re not winning football games or you’re conceding stupid goals or goals that are maybe coming from mistakes, we’ve also conceded from a set piece, we’ve also conceded from two penalty kicks,” Lynch said.

“It’s very natural in football, it’s very natural in footballers they maybe start to doubt themselves a little bit. They maybe second guess a little bit. They maybe overthink a little bit. And it’s important that we take that out of our game.

Related Reads

Twardek the hero as Galway United beat Waterford in seven-goal thriller

Tension at Tolka after pre-match flare-up but Shels v Bohs ends in stalemate

Derry City earn point away to St Pat's to ease pressure on boss Tiernan Lynch

“As I’ve told the players, it’s my responsibility. If we lose games trying to play football and trying to be brave, then that’s on me. I’ve got to take the rap for that, but I prefer to lose games trying to play the right way than starting to lose patience and lose belief and just go long and play back to front. That’s not what we want to be.

“That’s not what we’re about, we’ve too many good footballers. Now we need to go and build on this. We now need to try and put a run of games together. We need to build on clean sheets.

“Football’s all about confidence, and if we can get the confidence in this group with the ability that they have and the players that are there, who knows what can happen?”