SIMON COLLINS reports

“At times our players were fantastic to watch,” declared the Dubliner. “The pitch was in superb condition and I think the rain helped it. The only thing that let us down was our finishing and I felt we let Bohemians off the hook,” he lamented.

And Kenny remained of the belief that there’s quite a lot to play for as the season moves into its final third, the ‘Candy Stripes’ still involved in the League, League Cup, FAI Cup and Setanta Cup competitions.

He went on: “I suppose I should be more despondent than I am having failed to win the match, but there is life after losing your best player (Paddy McCourt) not to mention the departures of quality individuals such as Gary Beckett, David Forde, Ken Oman and Killian Brennan - defenders, creative players in midfield and a goalkeeper, so this is a new Derry City team.

“I’m fairly optimistic about the future but you can be knocked down again. Galway also won against Bray, but we have to go down there this Friday night and get the win.

“Our next five games are against teams from seventh to twelfth places in the table and it will depend on our points total from those fixtures. Galway are first up and it won’t be easy going down there, but we have the capability.

“Since our performance against St Pat’s at the Brandywell, I think we’ve played really well. We’re responding in the right way, but I can’t believe this match finished goalless, I really can’t believe that,” continued Kenny.

“We were experimenting a lot earlier in the season trying to find out the players’ strengths and weaknesses. These things take time, but now we look like a real team and we created more chances against Bohemians in this game than we did when we beat them 4-1 in the League Cup quarter-final.

“It’s a bit frustrating now because we know we’re chasing six points. We felt we were level with Bohemians and we had a great chance with the way the team was evolving, but that’s the nature of team building.

“In the match, I felt we looked absolutely devastating at times. Their goalkeeper had a really tremendous game and Bohs’ strength is that they’ve only conceded seven goals in the league this season.

“The fact that they left Joxer Kelly out – their most skilful wide player – their plan was always to hit the ball into the air. Their game plan was basically territorial, just to get the ball up the pitch and attempt to win throw-ins and set-pieces.

“We’ve played them twice in the league and they’ve never really had a shot against us in those two games yet hey have a more settled side than ourselves. They came third last season and retained the nucleus of that side as well as adding Ken Oman, Killian Brennan and Jason Byrne to the squad.

“So they’ve kept a settled side and those three new additions have been very influential for them, I think that says quite a lot about our peformances against them this season,” concluded the Dubliner.