Eoin Toal vows to bounce back from Euro heartbreak in Drogheda

The City centre half, who scored his first European goal in Vilnius on Tuesday, believes there’s no point dwelling on the result or obsessing over the defensive mistakes which cost them a place in Monday’s second round draw.

Instead, he says the players will channel those frustrations into producing a performance which will keep alive their hunt for silverware this season.

“That’s football,” shrugged the N. Ireland U21 international. “We have to move on as a team. There are more league games and there’s a cup game on Saturday we have to focus on now and get our heads right.

“We’ve got to put the European result behind us because you can’t go back in time and do anything now.

“The way I look at it is you can reflect on the game to see where you could’ve done better but then move on.

“We move on to Saturday and use that disappointment as motivation to get a result in the cup.”

Toal gave Derry real hope at the Lithuanian National Stadium when he made it 2-2 with a bullet header but FK Riteriai’s Donatas Kazlauskas’ extra-time winner dumped the Candy Stripes out of Europe.

And Armagh native, Toal, believes the entire team must take responsibility for ‘silly mistakes’ made for the three goals conceded but he’s determined to learn from the experience and put his full focus on tonight's trip to First Division outfit, Drogheda United.

“I thought we had the better chances and were the better side on the night. We just gave away stupid goals and you can’t do that in Europe.

“They were bad times to concede but I thought we played really well. It’s frustrating but it’s a team game. It’s not one individual at fault, everyone is at fault.

“We need to get better in that aspect of the game. We all know we’ve got to stop making silly mistakes on set-pieces. We have to stick together and hopefully we get better as a team.

“It’s tricky going away in Europe. Even going away with the international side is tougher than it is at home.

“It’s over and done with now and we’ve got to get ready for Saturday.”

The result took the joy out of his first ever European goal but Toal is determined to return to the continent next season.

“It would’ve been nice to enjoy the goal had we got a result. I was only trying to help the team.

“After that goal I thought we were on the front foot but each of their goals came at the wrong time for us and it was hard to take.

“We all thought they were there for the taking and we could’ve won the match. We had opportunities to win but we didn’t take them. We’ve got to cut out the silly mistakes and move on to Saturday.

“Hopefully we can bounce back by getting through to the quarter-finals of the cup.

“You want to win every competition so hopefully we can get the result we need.”