Shiels takes total blame for Dundalk defeat

Kenny Shiels was adamant that he was to blame for Derry City’s 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Dundalk last Sunday.

The Candystripes’ boss admitted in his post-match interview that he was like  ‘a bear with a sore head’ after his side crashed out of the FAI cup via another 4-0 defeat to the Lilywhites on August 13.

It was evident from the start that Shiels had sent his side out to prove a point. The Foylesiders tried to play open attacking football against a very well organised Dundalk side, a tactic that severely backfired with all four goals coming in the opening 45 minutes.

“I have to take the blame because I’ve been really frustrated this week,” Shiels said.

“I was throwing out negative energy to the players, I was argumentative, I was frustrated, I was all of the things that come into negative energy. I was like a bear with a sore head.

"I was hurting so much from last week (August 13) and I let it transfer onto the training ground and I apologise to the supporters for that, it’s poor management,” he said.

Dundalk dominated the Candystipes in every area of the pitch, a scenario Shiels didn’t see coming and honestly admitted it surprised him immensely.

“I don’t want any blame attached to the players because I said we could go against them. I didn’t realise how far they were ahead of us. Players like Patrick McEleney, (John) Mountney, (Robbie) Benson making runs from midfield, we tried to be too open against them and we're not good enough.

“We are not anywhere near as good them, and we have to accept that was foolhardy of me. To go against a team who is so much better than you, you are only going to get opened up and that’s my fault, let's not blame any of the players,” he said.

Shiels was keen to focus on any positives coming out of the fixture and the Northern Irish coach pointed towards his side’s two-point lead over Shamrock Rovers in the final European place.

“We are sitting two points ahead of Rovers and we have seven games left and if we can win the first one of those seven that would be quite pivotal,” Shiels said.

“That’s our building blocks for a new chapter in the season. The new chapter is to go out and perform with positive energy, to compete, make less mistakes, and when we go against the ball we’ve got to be more solid and defend better. That was a magnificent performance by Dundalk.”

Derry City's next game was due to take place on Sunday, September 3 against Drogheda United, but that has since been postponed due to international call-ups of Derry City players.