Andy Myler after Derry defeat: ‘It will be interesting at both ends of the table. Absolutely there is a title race.’

Macdara Ferris reports from the UCD Bowl

UCD manager Andy Myler was ruing the mistakes that cost his team their unbeaten home record on Monday night when Derry City came to the UCD Bowl and took the win.

Victory moved the Candystripes six points clear of second placed back-to-back champions Shamrock Rovers as the league goes into the final game of the first series of matches in the Premier Division this weekend.

“Having played both Derry and Rovers, Derry are a really good side,” said Myler when asked by extratime.com after the game about his view on the top of the table.

“They play a different way to Rovers, in that they change their shape. They did so in that game. They have that flexibility and are a really good side with really good players. Absolutely there is a title race. 

“It will be interesting at both ends of the table,” said Myler moving on to discuss the situation his team finds themselves. Having drawn their opening three home games, Monday’s defeat kept them bottom of the table, without a win and three points below Finn Harps in ninth place.

“We aren't too worried where we are points wise. There is plenty of time. It is a really competitive league. We know in the second series of games, if we can get two or three wins in there - easier said than done - it would shoot us right up the table.

“We have enjoyed it,” said Myler about the season so far. “Better games, better standard of players and a better test. We just keep need to working hard, believe in what we are doing. We have the players that can hurt teams.

"Truthfully we haven't had too much of a break in the first series of games. We need a decision to have gone our way once or twice but it hasn't. We hope that it evens out over the season.”

Level at the break against the Candystripes, the deadlock was broken by an excellent free kick by Will Patching on 66 minutes before Ronan Boyce grabbed Derry City’s second 13 minutes from time. 

“A lot of Derry’s chances were decent long range efforts. Happy enough with that. We were comfortable in the game for large parts of it. A lot of the play was in front of us which was fine.

“Most weeks we will take that and your 'keeper will more of less expect to pull off a few saves. The disappointing part was when we got to the stage in the game where we were relatively comfortable, we coughed up the free and it hurts us. 

“There was a rash challenge which gave them a chance. They have really good deadball players and we got punished.

“The second goal was even worse in terms of our play and concentration. I'll be speaking to the lads as we can't offer up one or two of those every week and expect to go anywhere.

“We aren't losing heart. We know we are close to getting results and if we can get a performance when we put all of it together, we will be ok.”

Ruaidhrí Higgins applauds Will Patching: 'He's one of those players, he just oozes class' https://t.co/rJfSYVbwtmpic.twitter.com/fuXrEqajAA

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) April 6, 2022