Zayed rues defeat at Oriel
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In the immediate aftermath of Derry City's defeat at Oriel Park on Thursday evening, the Candystripes centre forward Eamon Zayed was good enough to speak exclusively to Extratime.ie.
Eamon had produced a decent performance but had spurned the Candystripes two best chances from free play. Derry would have felt that on the weight of chances produced including a missed penalty that they should have got something from the match. The burly striker was obviously still finding that hard to swallow.
“First half we should have been one or two up, we can’t believe that we went in at half time 1-0 down. 2nd half we just didn’t really perform, we’re just disappointed, no disrespect to Dundalk they’ve been doing well recently, but we should have won that game tonight. We let ourselves down especially in the 2nd half, in the 1st half I thought we’d done well. I thought we dominated the 1st half and created a few chances so we were disappointed to go in 1-0 down. It wasn’t great defending for the goal, (Colin) Hawkins was just allowed to run up straight from our corner kick and it just wasn’t great defending from our point of view. We’re just sick to be honest losing that game because I felt that the three points were there for the taking. I know Dundalk haven’t been beaten at home this year I just thought that we were the better team.”
Eamon had a great chance to open the scoring in the 16th minute when he reacted first to a rebound from the bar but Peter Cherrie produced a wonder save to deny him.
“It was a good save, either way and it would have went in but I hit it straight at him. Ruaidhri Higgins had a nice little strike off of the bar and it just flew back at me. I actually connected with it quite well, but it was a good save to be fair. Initially when he first saved it I saw it and thought that it might loop back in. I thought after we missed the peno, my chance and we had another chance before it too. I think it was Danny Lafferty who got free from a free kick and failed to connect with it and he’s usually lethal from free kicks when he gets on the end of them. I’m sick, we’ve lost against Sligo twice this season but that tonight has really made me sick.”
As with all good strikers Eamon kept getting himself in positions to get on the end of chances and in the third minute of added time he had Derry's final chance to claim a draw but sadly saw it slide wide.
“I’d like to see it again, Patrick McEleney got a good little flick back, before he flicked it I felt that he might head it back so I anticipated. The ball was a few yards ahead of me so I slid at it and just couldn’t connect with it I made a crap connection with it to be honest. I felt at the time that I couldn’t do anything else with it I just slid and tried to get as much contact as I could.”
Derry will of course have a great chance to bounce straight back when they take on Galway who now sit at the bottom of the heap after their defeat to Drogheda.
Eamon had produced a decent performance but had spurned the Candystripes two best chances from free play. Derry would have felt that on the weight of chances produced including a missed penalty that they should have got something from the match. The burly striker was obviously still finding that hard to swallow.
“First half we should have been one or two up, we can’t believe that we went in at half time 1-0 down. 2nd half we just didn’t really perform, we’re just disappointed, no disrespect to Dundalk they’ve been doing well recently, but we should have won that game tonight. We let ourselves down especially in the 2nd half, in the 1st half I thought we’d done well. I thought we dominated the 1st half and created a few chances so we were disappointed to go in 1-0 down. It wasn’t great defending for the goal, (Colin) Hawkins was just allowed to run up straight from our corner kick and it just wasn’t great defending from our point of view. We’re just sick to be honest losing that game because I felt that the three points were there for the taking. I know Dundalk haven’t been beaten at home this year I just thought that we were the better team.”
Eamon had a great chance to open the scoring in the 16th minute when he reacted first to a rebound from the bar but Peter Cherrie produced a wonder save to deny him.
“It was a good save, either way and it would have went in but I hit it straight at him. Ruaidhri Higgins had a nice little strike off of the bar and it just flew back at me. I actually connected with it quite well, but it was a good save to be fair. Initially when he first saved it I saw it and thought that it might loop back in. I thought after we missed the peno, my chance and we had another chance before it too. I think it was Danny Lafferty who got free from a free kick and failed to connect with it and he’s usually lethal from free kicks when he gets on the end of them. I’m sick, we’ve lost against Sligo twice this season but that tonight has really made me sick.”
As with all good strikers Eamon kept getting himself in positions to get on the end of chances and in the third minute of added time he had Derry's final chance to claim a draw but sadly saw it slide wide.
“I’d like to see it again, Patrick McEleney got a good little flick back, before he flicked it I felt that he might head it back so I anticipated. The ball was a few yards ahead of me so I slid at it and just couldn’t connect with it I made a crap connection with it to be honest. I felt at the time that I couldn’t do anything else with it I just slid and tried to get as much contact as I could.”
Derry will of course have a great chance to bounce straight back when they take on Galway who now sit at the bottom of the heap after their defeat to Drogheda.
