Irish Premier Division
Galway United 2 – 1 Derry City FT
Derry City’s winless run stretched to five games as they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Galway United in the Premier Division at Eamonn Deacy Park on Friday night.
A stunning volley from man-of-the-match David Hurley put United in front inside 16 minutes.
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The Candystripes responded in the second period, and a terrific individual goal from James Clarke brought them level just past the hour mark.
But Frantz Pierrot had the final say, netting brilliantly from a narrow angle with less than 10 minutes to go to inflict a fourth defeat of the league campaign on Tiernan Lynch’s side .
Galway leapfrogged Derry with three points, with the Foylesiders now falling to eighth, just above the relegation play-off place through the first series of games.
Pressure mounting on Lynch
Under-fire manager Tiernan Lynch was forced to make two changes to his starting XI from the previous game against Drogheda, with star player Michael Duffy and James McClean both ruled out through injury.
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With both teams needing a victory, the game began at a frantic pace.
Galway took the lead just after a quarter of an hour. Hurley’s left-footed free kick went straight into the wall, but he followed up with a superb dipping volley off his right boot.
In the first of four consecutive away games amid the ongoing developments at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, City were once again under significant pressure early on.
The Candystripes had won in Galway on Good Friday last season, and to their credit, came out rejuvenated for the second half.
With Duffy absent, Clarke looked the most likely route to goal and produced a sublime equaliser in the 63rd minute when he cut inside from the left and drove his shot low into the bottom right-hand corner.
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The visitors were in the ascendancy, however, Galway soon responded.
Ed McCarthy was sent through on goal, but Derry goalkeeper Eddie Beach spread himself brilliantly to keep the shot out.
At the other end, Dipo Akinyemi skewed his effort high and wide after another piece of skill from Clarke created the opportunity.
The decisive moment came in the 82nd minute. Substitute Pierrot, fond of finding the net against City in the past, curled his shot back across Beach from an acute angle and low into the left-hand side of the net.
Another defeat that sees pre-season title hopefuls Derry third from bottom, having only beaten the two sides below them after nine matches.
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Next up is a trip to face to one of those two, Sligo Rovers, on Monday evening.
‘A hard road ahead’ – Lynch
Lynch said after the game that he was “very disappointed with the goals that we’re conceding” as he reflected on the loss in an interview with BBC Sport NI.
“We got ourselves back into the game and probably should have gone in front, then we conceded another stupid counter-attack goal, shot ourselves in the foot and ended up losing the game.
“We are struggling at the moment, I’m not going to try and sugarcoat this. Confidence is low and there’s an element of me that feels a little bit sorry for the players as it’s not as if they are downing tools or not working hard. They’re doing all the right things and are fully committed.
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“We are just getting absolutely battered with the goals that we’re conceding and we’re not clinical at the other end of the pitch.”
The Candystripes boss added that he and the players will redouble their efforts to turn things round, starting with Monday’s visit to Sligo.
“We can feel sorry for ourselves or we can roll up our sleeves and dig our way out of this. That’s what we fully intend to do. There’s no easy fix in this, there’s a hard road ahead, but we’ve got to be prepared to do it.
“We’re not where we should be and we have to take the criticism for that. It’s up to us to put it right and put in the hard yards.”
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