Derry City's Brian Maher happy with another clean-sheet

Goalkeeper Brian Maher was happy that Derry City were able to show a different side to their game, to secure their seventh victory on the bounce.
Derry CIty's Ronan Boyce, Joe Thomson, Cian Kavanagh and Ryan Graydon celebrate in front of the travelling fans.Derry CIty's Ronan Boyce, Joe Thomson, Cian Kavanagh and Ryan Graydon celebrate in front of the travelling fans.
Derry CIty's Ronan Boyce, Joe Thomson, Cian Kavanagh and Ryan Graydon celebrate in front of the travelling fans.

The impressive 1-0 win at St Patrick’s Athletic, moved City 10 points clear of the Dubliners and all but secured European football for next season.

Maher, who conceded he was disappointed after Republic of Ireland’s U21 Euro play-off penalty shoot-out defeat to Israel, was over the moon that he played his part in Derry keeping their fifth league clean-sheet in a row.

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"It’s a massive win for and we’ve had to win. We’ve dug-in and conditions were very tough for us in the second half, with the wind and we probably found it hard to get out at times, but if you’re going to go far in this league you have to win a few different ways and we showed another side of us tonight, which we’re really happy to do.

The 21-year-old net-minder was full of praise for the large travelling support who again cheered the boys on to victory.

"I think we suffered so much together in the game the relief adds to it at the end of the game, so to celebrate with the fans is great,” he added.

"The fans were unbelievable all night, especially then in the second half whenever we needed them, as we had to dig in and we’ve got a lot of sore bodies in the changing, but the fans drove us on, which they have done so many times this season, so it was a great moment to celebrate with them at the final whistle and hopefully we’ll have more moments like that.”

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Maher made a tremendous double save in the first half whenever the game was still scoreless to deny Sam Curtis and Harry Brockbank in quick succession, but the young keeper was modest and conceded he should have done better with the initial effort,

"If I’m being honest with myself I should have done better with the first header, which made me having to make a second save, so I was just glad to keep it out in the end, because that’s what you need to do,” he added.

"I’m happy we got another clean-sheet, we’re on a little run of keeping clean-sheets and that’s what we’ve demanded from ourselves.”