We didn’t land a blow, says Derry boss

DINAMO MINSK proved much too hot for a struggling Derry City at the Brandywell, the Candystripes’ hopes of progressing in the Europa League dismissed with a poor result on home soil. And the fact that Derry conceded the opening goal in Dinamo’s first attack told its own story, the home side were never at the races. Dinamo rarely moved out of second gear, Croatian defender Nino Galovic’s second minute strike and a killer 64th-minute goal from Uladzimir Khvashchinski doing the damage. Indeed, the home side rarely threatened on the night and, if it wasn’t for two top saves from goalkeeper Ger Doherty, it could’ve been much worse for Kenny Shiels’ troops. The team boss had no complaints afterwards. ‘We can only learn from this experience,’ he admitted. ‘We also learned a bit about ourselves as well. ‘We’re still naive in terms of managing the game, but we just didn’t have the quality to lay a glove on them.’ That said, Shiels heaped praise on his players for their effort and he promised that Derry would step it up in the second leg in Eastern Europe next Thursday night. ‘They have great quality which we will find hard to match, but we now know what we are up against and I’ve no doubt the players will do all in their power to get something from the game,’ he added. In what proved a hugely disappointing result, Derry also finished the game with 10 men following Conor McDermott’s late sending off for a second yellow card. DERRY CITY: Doherty: McDonagh, Cole, Seaborne, McDermott; Hale (Ronan Hale 6), Splaine; Fisk (Peers 78), McEneff, Shiels; Roy (Patterson 60). Red card: McDermott 81. DINAMO MINSK: Harbunou; Zhaunerchyk, Galovic, Chyzh, Shvetsou, Astraukh ( Behunou 77); Hurenka, Nikolic, Kaplenka (Ivanou 29), Yahaya; Khvashchinski (Salavei 66), Saroka. Scorers: Galovic 2, Khvaschinski 64. Referee: N Popov (Bulgaria).