McEleney not dwelling on Euro exit

Derry City midfielder Patrick McEleney was one certain player targeted by Trabzonspor fans prior the clubs' clash in the Europa League qualifier. Having come through the ties unscathed, McEleney was not too disheartened despite his side's exit from the tournament, having helped his team produce two credible performances, not necessarily depicted by the 7-2 aggregate scoreline.

Speaking to extratime.ie after the game, the 21 year-old said: "They were quality opposition, and at times, there's not much you can do, but I feel that we can come away from the game knowing that in the first half we matched them all over the park and hopefully we can take positives from that.

"Coming into the latter stages of the games, they showed their quality a bit, but it was definitely a good experience to play against such strong opposition."

Despite all the good work during both legs, Derry were ultimately architects of their own downfall, as several defensive errors paved the way for Trabzonspor to progress.

McEleney said: "They were bad goals to concede, especially after giving ourselves a chance with two away goals out there. We scored an own goal and conceded from a set piece, which isn't like us, so I think we would have been well in the tie had we not conceded so easily."

With the Brandywell being packed to the rafters for this game, the atmosphere in the stadium is something that McEleney points to as an important factor for the side's impressive first half display.

He said: "Having gone to Trabzon and played in front of their home crowd, to coming back here to the Brandywell, it was a bit weird.

"That was a massive crowd for us tonight, and a brilliant atmosphere, but compared to over in Turkey, it was a different grade.  It really helped us on though, and I think that it gave us a kick in the first half. 

"Hopefully the younger players, including myself, will take these kind of experiences on board and hopefully that will help us kick on now for the rest of the season."

With so much to play for in the closing stages of the season, Declan Devine's side know that there is still a lot of football to be played in the coming months, and McEleney for one, will not be dwelling on tonight's result.

He said: "We're disappointed, but it's done and dusted and we have to concentrate on getting ourselves back to our best in the league and hopefully push on now in the coming weeks."