SSE Airtricity League Premier Division Drogheda 2 Derry City 2
DERRY City manager Ruaidhrí Higgins was a frustrated man after their 2-2 draw at Drogheda United on Friday night.
Higgins, who watched his side bounce back to Warren Davis’s early strike and race into the lead thanks to goals from Michael Duffy and Will Patching, felt his players lacked composure in the second half and then conceded Frantz Pierrot’s late equaliser.
“I’ve really strange emotions, a lot of anger as we had the game in the palm of our hands and let it slip,” he stated.
“We knew when we came to this place, they’re never out of the game unless you put them out of the game and it shouldn’t have got to the last 20-25 minutes with Drogheda still in the game. It came back to haunt us.
“We hit the post and had one or two chances to go 3-1 up, but I felt after those chances that we retreated too much and we gave away silly free-kicks around our box and invited pressure and it ultimately it cost us.
“I’m angry because of the two really poor goals we conceded. You also know that when you’re 2-1 up away from home they’re going to put balls into your box, but we didn’t defend well enough in moments.
“First half we responded really, really well to going a goal behind, played some brilliant football got ourselves deservedly in front and we could’ve scored one or two more. But in the final 25 minutes of the game I don’t know why, but for whatever reason we retreated and invited pressure. And when you invite pressure at this ground, you get punished.
“We lacked a bit of composure at times and, as I said, it has come back to bite us.”
The Limavady man is getting annoyed that his experienced side aren’t being ruthless enough in both boxes.
“I feel very, very disappointed that we didn’t see the game out,” he insisted.
“We didn’t show more composure, we didn’t pass the ball the way we did in the first half and if we had done that we would have opened them up and got one or two more goals. We’ve got good experience on the pitch and we should have done better, particularly from that middle to end part of the game and we should be leaving with three points.
“It’s really disappointing our lack of consistency, obviously we’ve drawn another game away from home, which is disappointing. We played some really good stuff at Drogheda, but I’m disappointed that we didn’t show the class and composure to go and finish that game off.
“We’re not a team full of 19, 20 and 21-year-olds, we’re a team loaded with experienced players from back to front and we need to do better. We’re all in this together and it’s not a blame game, but it’s been too common the last couple of years where we are drawing games.”
Fixtures
Monday Bohemians v Dundalk (7.45pm)
Friday, April 19 (7.45pm) Bohemians v Drogheda Derry City v Shamrock Rovers; Galway v Shelbourne; Sligo v Dundalk; St Patrick’s v Waterford
