Mark Connolly reacts to Derry City's first leg win over KuPS

Derry Journal

Derry City defender Mark Connolly gives his reaction to the club's comeback win over Finland's KuPS at Brandywell.

Transcript

00:00 Well Mark, what a fantastic night here at the Brandywell. I haven't seen the place

00:04 rocking like that for a long time. Yeah listen it was special. I thought the boys were exceptional

00:11 tonight. I thought everyone, the boys that came on, everyone that played tonight, gave

00:15 absolutely everything and the fans were special tonight. They were, the second half, they

00:21 were one of the big main reasons why we got over the line and we need that every week.

00:26 We need a Brandywell like that every week. Obviously over the last few months we haven't

00:32 got the results and it's been difficult but tonight was special and if we have that every

00:39 week at the Brandywell we'll not be far away in every competition we play.

00:44 We expected them to be a step up in class from the first of them but the way they started,

00:49 what were you thinking at that stage? I know you said they'd done your homework but they

00:52 were definitely a class actor. Yeah listen, the first ten minutes we had to sort of suss

00:59 it out a wee bit. You can watch videos and you can get information on players and the

01:03 way they move and the way they rumble. See when it comes to a game, it's kind of where

01:08 you suss things out. I thought the first ten minutes we didn't get the grips with it completely

01:13 and then I thought after the ten minutes I thought we were comfortable. I thought we

01:19 sort of sussed them out and whatever the dangers were we dealt with it. Obviously they get

01:26 the penalty which was frustrating but I thought the second half, the way we on the front foot

01:32 and the way we played, some of the football was outstanding. Some comments about us being

01:38 hard working and stuff but we've got some exceptional players on the team. We've got

01:42 an honest group of boys that will run through brick walls here and that's the minimum for

01:47 this club and this city. I thought tonight everyone showed that. Yeah the first half

01:52 you had some great chances, obviously hit the bar as well too. Then it just got drenched

01:56 and then the penalty. Talk us through the penalty because it was close quarters the

02:00 shot. It was difficult, you're sort of going to block it and I never stretched out my arms

02:06 you're kind of torn in your body and it's hit me in the arm, there's nothing I can do.

02:09 It's close range, it's coming at you on the mile an hour so there's very little you can

02:13 do. The timing of it too was just sickening. Yeah we could have kind of went under from

02:20 there, we could have 1-0 going in just on the stroke of half time, it's not really dealing

02:24 with that but the second half was the character and the mindset of the boys that come out.

02:30 It could have been easy to just be feeling sorry for ourselves and just try and take

02:34 a 1-0 win in the Finland but the way we went in the second half was incredible. Yeah the

02:39 subs obviously made a massive impact, Paul was outstanding, I think it just ignited it

02:45 didn't it in the second half and then Cain obviously popping up with a goal as well.

02:49 Yeah listen Cain came on, he's a handful, he scored his goal for us, he said it was

02:54 in the shower there and I wish he had got one or two more. But the way he came on, he worked

02:59 his socks off and he was brilliant and then Paul, Paul has that, Paul is, I'm not going

03:05 to keep saying it but he's pre-season, it's going to take him a little bit of time to

03:10 get up to speed but every game that he's played and he's shown his quality. He's going to

03:14 get bums off seats and I think it was brilliant for the manager at the time when he brought

03:18 him on. Every time he got on he was just so positive, going at their left back every time,

03:27 some of the deliveries every time was incredible. Some of his habit. Yeah, he's probably following

03:32 it through the whole game. No but aye the wee man was brilliant but listen everyone

03:36 I thought, Ronan Boyce that right back was outstanding, Ben Doherty was outstanding

03:41 between the full-backs, me being a defender but that's kind of where I look at the defensive

03:45 side and the top of the two boys were incredible. Brian Mahers pulled off an incredible save

03:49 in the second half to keep us in the game and then all the boys in front of that were amazing.

03:54 Gives you real belief now going onto the second leg and you've got to just repeat that kind

03:59 of performance. You don't want to go and shut up shop as Rory was saying, just go and play

04:03 the way that works for you and work tonight. We'll go there, we'll give it a go. It's not

04:08 going to be easy, it's going to be an extremely tough game over there. They've got plenty

04:13 of international players, tactically very good, technically very good. They're near

04:17 up top in the Finnish league so it's going to be tough but we'll go there and we'll give

04:22 it an absolute right go. We're not going to sit off and hopefully we can get a result.

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