Derry City’s Aaron McEneff was full of praise for both Dundalk and Derry City following the 2-2 draw in Oriel Park on Friday night in the SSE Airtricity League. McEneff scored from the penalty spot as the first half was in its concluding minutes bu
Derry City’s Aaron McEneff was full of praise for both Dundalk and Derry City following the 2-2 draw in Oriel Park on Friday night in the SSE Airtricity League.
McEneff scored from the penalty spot as the first half was in its concluding minutes but found themselves behind going in at half time following a second Dundalk goal from Michael Duffy.
“There was great combination in the build up and I saw the big centre back (Daniel Cleary) come across me and I thought ‘if I get a touch here he is going to clean me out’ and thats exactly what happened and its great to get on the score sheet to help the team,” reflected McEneff on the pass and move build up that led to Ben Connolly awarding the penalty.
“Probably it was a fair result but we have it look at it selfishly and see it as two points dropped,” he further added. “Look we were under no illusion coming down here, Dundalk are a great side and they showed that tonight and they moved the ball around really well. They put us under threat for large parts of the game but I thought we defended well and we took our chances when we got them.”
Following a very difficult opening series of games, the Candystripes found their form to be erratic but that is something McEneff wants to rectify going into the second series of games.
“It was hard at the start of the season, we brought in a lot of new players and we didn’t have the Brandywell as our base. We have come out that period now and we have done well recently and got a lot of good results so its exciting times ahead for the players involved and the club.”
Last night's contest was a game played at a high tempo with a pressing game that both Stephen Kenny and Kenny Shiels like to execute something McEneff feels that will see Derry be successful this season.
“Both sets of players like to get the ball down and play and I think you could tell that from both teams tonight, probably over the course of the match Dundalk played the better football tonight. They kept the ball better than we did, you can still tell, even though we didn’t do it at times that there is a lot of good footballers in each side.
“It will cause teams problems and it has done so far in the league by getting the ball down and moving it quick and making movement off the ball.”
