Derry City ship sailing into stormy seas without its skipper

The former Dundalk star and Derry City skipper who scored five goals in the opening eight games, has missed the last three fixtures with a quad injury, during which the Candy Stripes earned only two points out of a possible nine.

After his 50th game in charge Lynch's managerial position is under the microscope due to a current seven-match winless run, with the majority of the disillusioned fanbase calling for a change.

At a blustery and rainsoaked Oriel Park the visitors were fortunate to escape with a share of the spoils despite finding themselves in the driving seat at 2-1 at half-time.

However, substitute Ronan Teahan headed the home side level in the 80th minute and they could so easily have taken maximum points as they laid siege to Derry's goal.

Josh Thomas did create a gilt-edge chance with 15 minutes to go but Eoin Kenny hit the post and Eddie Beach needed to be at his best to keep out Dundalk in the final stages.

There's no doubt Derry have been missing Duffy's presence in recent games but Lynch's problems run a lot deeper than that with just two wins from their opening 11 matches and very few green shoots.

Of course the Belfast man opted to focus on the positives in his post-match interview in Co. Louth as he reflected on the absence of some key players.

"I think it's hard to stand there and not think 'I wish Mickey Duffy was out there,'" he said. "The goals that Mickey brings to games and even the experience that Brian [Maher] will bring in goals at times.

"Taking Michael Duffy out of any team. He's one lad that changes games on his own. Games like tonight when it's tight, Michael is the one who can open the door or get you that goal or whatever it may be, so he's a huge miss.

"Cameron Dummigan came on and even for 20 minutes I thought there were wee glimpses of what he's all about. “Hopefully Paddy [McClean] will be back in the next week or so. So there are definitely positives, and hopefully we can bring back that competition for places. We're very confident as a team and a group that we'll turn this around."

James Clarke has stepped up to the mark in recent games and delivered the level of performances and goals he showed at Bohemians last season where he finished the campaign as the club's top scorer.

It's two goals in three games now for the Meath man after his neat finish after 14 minutes in Dundalk when he steered Ben Doherty's cutback into the net.

"James Clarke has chipped in with a couple of goals in the last couple of games. We need to get big Dipo [Akinyemi] back scoring goals again. Every game that goes by we're trying to get him fitter and fitter.

"Hopefully when this all comes together and clicks and we get the players back it will be a little bit easier on us."

Lynch's substitutions have been heavily scrutinised and when he took off the influential Clarke when Derry were 2-1 on the hour mark it raised quite a few eyebrows around the ground. In came James McClean at No.6 and James Olayinka as it appeared the Derry boss was attempting to close up shop.

When asked his reasoning behind the switch Lynch explained that a three-game week required an injection of fresh legs.

"No, not at all," he answered when asked if it was a move to hold on to what he had at the time. "It was just fresh legs and fresh energy.

"Obviously we had a game Friday, a game Monday and then another game Friday again. We thought the players that started the game, we tried to get a bit of continuity but we were always going to make the changes at certain points in the game. I thought, being 2-1 up, if we got fresh legs on it would've kept the momentum but unfortunately, we conceded that goal.

"The longer the game went on we probably looked like we tired and Dundalk came into the game the stronger team as the game finished.

"It was difficult. The players are on the pitch and we're screaming at them from the sidelines to get themselves up and they were finding it difficult because the ball kept coming in and it was holding in the wind.

"I'm not going to make excuses but the conditions were difficult for them as was Monday [in Sligo] but it's a changing room that's very disappointed in there."

The conditions deteriorated as the game progressed, and Derry played against a swirling wind in both halves. While a draw at Oriel Park in isolation could be viewed as a decent point, the seven match winless streak is difficult to defend for a team expected to challenge for the title that now appears to be sailing rudderless in a storm.

Without their skipper, Derry has been navigating choppy waters and Lynch must find a way to steer towards calm seas - if we continue with Lynch's storm analogy from Wednesday's pre-match press conference.

He insists 'storms don't last forever,' but unless they find a win at Tolka Park there might not be much to salvage from the wreckage that has been their start to a season of so much promise.

After the final whistle, the rain-drenched Lynch looked dejected - a man who could potentially be coming toward the end of his voyage, having lost the faith of the majority of City fans. He's certainly not prepared to abandon ship.

"This is certainly not something we enjoy and nobody is more frustrated and disappointed that we're not getting wins than us. It's between us and our sleep believe me.

"The amount of work and effort that's going in to try and put this right and we keep telling ourselves the storm has to blow over. We keep believing the storm will blow over. I think we were very similar last year with the start we had and getting things together and eventually it clicked and we turned it around. We're hoping and praying it's the same [this time]."

Lynch has no concerns about the mentality of his team who are admittedly low in confidence. But how does he turn around this damaging run of form?

"There's nothing I can say that's going to turn it around - no! Your big worry always as a manager is if the players aren't responding but if you look at the effort out there and they're throwing themselves at everything, it means everything to them. We just have to find that first win and hopefully kick on from it."

Dundalk, a team on the rise, looked exactly that - a team, unified with structure and hunger to find a winner. Derry look dishevelled at times, disjointed and without a clear plan. However, there's no doubting the players’ desire as they threw their bodies on the line during a tense finale.

"I think it's just one of those situations where the players are hugely disappointed when they concede. We just need to get that little break where we can grind out a win from somewhere and get our confidence back and get players firing on all cylinders again.

"Unfortunately that's just not the case at the moment that there is a little lack of confidence. There's no doubt there's good players and good professionals in that changing room. You can see they're absolutely and utterly working their backsides off, throwing themselves in front of footballs and blocking on the line. So we just need that one win to kick us on." The pressure will intensify for as long as this winless run continues and Lynch admits he would take a win in any manner and anywhere but Tolka Park will be a tough ask.

"I'd take a win anywhere at this stage. There's no easy games in this league and when things aren't going you're way there's nowhere to look around and think 'that's a handy one'.

"I just seen tonight Sligo went and beat Bohs which just shows you the strength of this league and how many good teams are in this league. You take nothing for granted and you have to grind your way out of it.”