Ruaidhri Higgins blasts Derry City's 'unacceptable' performance against Shamrock Rovers

The champions leapfrogged Derry into second place with an formidable display and a goal of the season contender from Richie Towell which capped a dominant first half display.

Jack Byrne's 35 yards strike into an empty net after Brian Maher's misplaced clearance on the stroke of half-time ultimately killed off the contest and an out-of-sorts Derry failed to recover.

Higgins claimed he 'didn't see it coming' and was at a loss to explain why his team lacked the same intensity shown in the 2-0 win over St Pat's last Friday night but the Limavady man admitted the better team won on the night.

"Very disappointing night," he began when asked to sum up the performance. "First half we never really laid a glove on them to be honest and it's not like us and it wasn't our intentions.

"The one thing we've always done against Shamrock Rovers is went toe-to-toe with them and have a right crack and we were too passive, too stand-offish and I didn't see it coming to be honest given the intensity we played with the other night. We wanted that replicated and we just didn't get going at all and the damage was done in the first 45 minutes."

Byrne's goal with the last kick of the first half was a real blow for Derry.

"It was obviously avoidable," added the Derry boss. "It gives you a wee bit of hope if you come in just a goal down and then it's a bit of a mountain to climb when you're two goals down. Even though we weren't good at all in the first half, if we came in 1-0 down it might've been a different story.

"It's an extremely disappointing night. First half was unacceptable and we won't accept it and we just have to go now on Friday and use the hurt of this tonight and put it into our performance on Friday."

With Rovers beginning to hit top form after a run of 10 matches unbeaten and three straight league wins, Derry must now chase their tails and Higgins knows his team must improve significantly on Monday's display if they're to close the gap.

"If you finish above Shamrock Rovers you'll be champions and they're without doubt for me still the best squad of players in the country," said Higgins. "We're doing our best to chase them down and we have to do a lot better than we did tonight if we're going to try and achieve that.

"It's not the end of the world. It's the first time in two years we've been beaten by more than a goal in the league. I don't want that to ever happen again. We have to learn from it, we have to man up and take it on the chin, It wasn't an acceptable performance and the only way to deal with that is to bounce back quickly and put in a real committed performance and that's the least you can ask for."