Toal bemoans Derry’s struggles in front of goal
AIRTRICITY PREMIER DIVISION DESPITE defensive problems all season, Eoin Toal believes that a failure to take scoring opportunities is the reason why Derry City are continuing to struggle.
The Candystripes fell to their seventh home defeat of the season on Saturday, 1-0 to Shamrock Rovers, missing some gilt-edged chances before Dan Carr’s goal settled the game.
The past week has been sore on the Brandywell side, who celebrated the EA Sports League Cup triumph over Cobh Ramblers only to be eliminated from the FAI Cup by Bohemians just three days later.
City are now struggling in seventh place in the Premier Division, with European qualification now impossible, and Toal, who returned to the starting 11 after seven games out, believes that the team are doing themselves no favours at either end of the pitch.
“We definitely had a couple of clear-cut chances, and we couldn’t seem to take them. It just felt like it wasn’t our night,” he admitted.
“You get that in football when you put away four or five and then the next week you don’t get any, so it’s just tough to take.
“We deserved at least a draw if not a win. We didn’t deserve to get beat 1-0 as we had plenty of chances, and we defended well — particularly in the first 45 minutes. Then they got their bit of luck and put it away.”
City now face the prospect of travelling to Oriel Park tomorrow night to take on a Dundalk side that practically have both hands on the league trophy following their 1-0 win over Cork. The Louth venue is a happy hunting ground for Toal who scored in a 2-2 draw earlier in the season.
“The past while it’s been the other way for us where we’ve taken our chances but we haven’t defended well, but tonight was the opposite way about.
“It’s just football — it can go against you sometimes. Hopefully we can take our chances against Dundalk if we can get one or two, because they’re a top quality side. We got a draw down there when we were coming off the back of a really good unbeaten run.
We were on a run of form and got a result, and I don’t see why we can’t do that this time as well,” he concluded.
While he admitted it wasn’t easy watching on from the bench after an impressive start to the campaign, Toal said he backed his manager to make the right choices when it comes to his development as a player.
“It was frustrating because I played so many games early on, but I’m only young,” the Armagh native admitted.
“I’ve just turned 19, and I think Kenny has managed me right. Whatever he does, I’ll always respect his judgement.” Teen talent: Candystripes’ defender Eoin Toal