Derry City are targeting history; just not the piece of history they had been planning for.
After the shock defeat away to Gibraltar’s Bruno’s Magpies in the Conference League First Qualifying Round, the Candystripes must do what no League of Ireland side has ever done before and overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit to keep their European show on the road and bank £462,000. Defeat would see them pick up just £210,000.
Ruaidhri Higgins’ men were booed off the pitch in the sweltering heat after conceding from two second-half set-pieces, but the Derry boss has called on his side to turn the hurt into joy at the Brandywell on Thursday night.
“Because no Irish team has ever done it before, I don’t see it as a chance to break a record or anything. It’s not one to really be proud of. We have a job to do,” said Higgins, ahead of Thursday’s second leg (7.45pm)
“We know where we went wrong last week. We’ll use the fuel to energise us and go out and put in an unbelievably courageous and committed performance.
“We needed time because you can’t just sweep things under the carpet either. We have broken things down, spoken about it, we have all had our say, and as I said after the game, talk is cheap.
“You can do all the talking you want, but it’s about action now and turning the hurt into joy. We know what we have to do to do that.”
Higgins acknowledged that his side let supporters down with their first-leg showing but insists Derry did not underestimate Magpies, a pub team formed in 2013.
“There is no getting away from it, we all know that we let people down, we let ourselves down, and we now have a real opportunity to put that right,” added the Derry boss.
“No (we didn’t underestimate them), because there’s too much at stake in these games.
“It is financially worth too much money to the club, we did our homework the way we do on every other opposition.
“We got as much out of our preparation as we possibly could, but we just didn’t perform the way that we know we can, which is disappointing.
“But we now have an opportunity to put it right. We underperformed, we have to take that on the chin and roll our sleeves up and fight back.
“We’ve seen how special European nights can be in the Brandywell, and we need them (fans) to get right behind us from minute one.”