Keep calm and carry on - urges Derry City boss Ruaidhrí Higgins

​Ruaidhrí Higgins, however, has urged his troops to 'stay calm' with plenty more twists and turns expected in the race to the finish line.

​The Candy Stripes have been in this position before and have shown resilience to bounce back from setbacks but the difference now is that time is of the essence.

Putting together a string of victories this season has been a task every team has fallen short of such is the competitive and unpredictable nature of it.

However, Shels could stretch their lead at the top to SIX points before Derry return to action and with just SEVEN games to go it would be a tough task to overcome such a deficit.

Derry still must play Damien Duff's team at Brandywell on the final day but the Foylesiders' next league match is against Shamrock Rovers - a game they can ill afford to lose otherwise that clash with the Tolka Park outfit could be a dead rubber.

If there's been one certainty in this season's campaign, it's that nothing is certain and Higgins isn't pressing the panic button just yet.

“Unfortunately we have 15 days without a game, but we'll come back refreshed and ready to go because we've been down this road before,” Higgins said.

“We've seen how it's going to ebb and flow and as I've said before, there's not just two in this, there's more and it makes for a really exciting end to the season.”

Derry were in the driving seat with the previous week's victory over Waterford at the RSC and seeking a third consecutive away win on the road in all competitions at notoriously difficult venues.

The fixture at Eamonn Deacy Park would have been ring fenced by many as one of Derry's most difficult in the run-in but this result brought to the surface so many question marks, frustrations and disappointments which have reared their ugly head at various points throughout the club's campaign.

Defensively Derry have looked solid in recent games and up until Patrick Hickey's winning goal on 76 minutes, they had dealt with Ed McCarthy's missile-like long throw-ins and Galway's physicality at set-plays with some comfort.

But it was the, at times, laborious nature of their build-up play and a lack of a cutting edge in the final third which marred this performance.

Derry failed to register a shot on target in the opening half but you would've put your mortgage on Will Patching finding the back of the net after the best move of the match involving a neat flick from Adam O'Reilly and an inch perfect pass from Paul McMullan.

Michael Duffy had his heels clipped by Conor McCormack inside the penalty area but match referee Kevin O'Sullivan was well placed and turned away some furious protests from the Derry players and coaching staff.

Brendan Clarke produced a stunning save to deny Patching from distance on the hour mark while Greg Cunningham cleared Pat Hoban's shot on the turn off the line from the resultant corner.

As limited as Galway were, there was always an air of anxiety hanging over Derry given how much is at stake every time they take to the pitch in these closing stages of the season.

And just like they did against Shamrock Rovers the previous week, Galway scored with around 15 minutes left to play and it was Hickey once again doing the damage.

Brian Maher came to claim David Hurley's free kick but Danny Mullen clattered into the City keeper who spilled the ball and Hickey reacted quickest to fire the ball into the net.

At the other end McMullan did brilliantly to beat his man and clipped in his cross from the right but Mullen couldn't get enough purchase on the header from close range and Clarke gathered cleanly.

Derry had it all to do against a team who conceded just 20 goals so far this season and despite the long awaited return of Patrick McEleney and reinforcements in the form of Colm Whelan, Ben Doherty and Ronan Boyce, Derry came away empty handed.

It was an untimely blow to their title aspirations but expect more plot twists to come in this title tale.

“You can't get too disappointed,” Higgins reflected afterwards. “It's going to ebb and flow, there'll be ups and downs and we just have to try and win the next game which is the cup in 15 days' time.

"We’ll recharge the batteries and stay calm but also try to improve. We’ve been down this road before, we’ve dealt with setbacks well and I’m sure we’ll deal with this one.”

No one would’ve argued if the points were shared and while a fear of losing a game at this stage of the season is understandable, Derry fans came away from Galway frustrated their team didn’t throw the shackles off.

“Of course it's a disappointing outcome, a disappointing result. I don't think we deserved to lose the game. Did we deserve to win it? Maybe not, but I definitely don't think we deserved to lose the game.

"We had a couple of opportunities in both halves and we had a blatant penalty turned down in the first half down in that end.

"Michael Duffy's actually had to get a heavy strapping on his ankle off the back of it and Michael Duffy doesn't go down, he doesn't dive, so that's a penalty.

"We knew coming down here it was going to be a really difficult task to prove that way, but I certainly don't feel we deserved to lose it.”

Labouring on that penalty claim, Higgins was adamant that could’ve been the turning point in the match.

“I've seen it back. I'm not sure I can have too many complaints,” he said. “I think it's our player that's made the contact, but their player instigated that, so you can look at it both ways. But I would have a bigger complaint about the penalty that we should have had in the first half.

“It's what they play off here, long throws, set-plays, you know what you're going to get,” he continued. “At that time we give up too many wide free-kicks, throw-ins, etc. When that happens here you come under pressure, and to be honest, by and large I felt we dealt with all them things really well.

"So, it's disappointing how we conceded the goal, but as I said I thought we did look threatening at times and it's a difficult opposition to look threatening against, but I thought some of our play was good, some of it could have been better.

"But listen, there's going to be a heap of twists and turns between now and the end of the season and we need to stay composed and calm and controlled.”

Next up is that visit of Shels to Brandywell in the cup – a game which could have a major bearing on how successful this season will be for both.

"We didn't really have a say on the game being on the Saturday at quarter to six, we were instructed that that's when it was going to be. Strangely enough, but listen, we'll get on with it and we'll deal with it if it comes our way.

Galway: Clarke 8; Esua 6 (Horgan 6, 89), Brouder 7 (Slevin 6, 52), Buckley 7, Cunningham 8; Keohane 7, McCormack 7 (Nugent 6, 63), Borden 6 (Hurley 7 63), Hickey 8, McCarthy 8 (Burns 6, 89); Walsh 6.

Derry City: Maher 6: Wisdom 7 (Boyce 6, 82), Connolly 7, McEleney 7, Coll 7 (Doherty 6, 82): McMullan 7, O'Reilly 7 (Whelan 6, 82), Diallo 6 (P. McEleney 6, 75), Duffy 6; Patching 6; Hoban 6 (Mullen 6, 75).

Ref: Kevin O'Sullivan (Cork).