Devlin disappointed at Derry defeat

After Friday night's defeat at home to Derry City, Bray Wanderers Director of Football Pat Devlin admitted he thought his side should have got the three points, "I'm disappointed with the lads. Before the game we'd had four or five that pulled out that would have been regular and we had to stitch it up a little bit. We started reasonably well. The conditions were tough and we were under the kosh a little bit but we got back in the game. I was thrilled going in at 1-1 at half-time and I really, really thought that we could have won the game 2 or 3-1."

Although the visitors had the better of the first half, Wanderers started the second period on top and, although they couldn't properly test Gerard Doherty in the City goal, Devlin was left wondering what could have been for his side, especially when Conor Murphy missed a seemingly easy chance, "I didn't see them scoring against us in that half and, to be quite honest, when we missed the header, in particular, it was the turning point but I don't want to be too hard on Conor [Murphy] because he scored two for us in Pats when we needed him and he's going to score a lot of winners for us. It's just unfortunate that he didn't get too much on it, he should have really powered it home."

While still ruing the defeat, Devlin credited the Candystripes, "But, that's football for you. And then John Mulroy's chance, the one that just went over the bar. Other than that, you have to give credit to Derry, I just didn't see them winning the game and they did."

Around the hour mark, Derry switched from a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1, bringing Stephen McLaughlin on for David McDaid and leaving Eamon Zayed up front on his own. The switch helped Derry break up Bray's control of the game and their winner game just as Devlin was preparing to make a change to his side, "We sort of knew what they were doing but we were looking to sort of consolidate and then we were pushing on to win it. Derry went a little bit long and it was when we were going to make the change that they scored. We were just about to change around then and have a real go at it and they just caught us and it was a sucker-punch really, to be honest with you."

The defeat ends the Seagulls' three game unbeaten run in the league but, perhaps of more concern, it means Bray are still without a home win this season. With Wanderers relying so much on successful home form over the last few seasons, a change is needed there. Devlin agreed but highlighted the changes he had to make as an explanation in this case, "This is always a fortress and we're disappointed from that point of view really but, you know, when you make four or five changes, it's difficult. I'm not making any excuses. They shaded it, that's fine, that's football."