Ruaidhri Higgins on Derry City's title race: 'It's not over!"

Joe Thomson came off the bench to rescue a point on 83 minutes which kept alive Derry's outside chances of piping Rovers for the league crown.

However, Higgins troops must win all three of their final league matches, including the away trip to Tallaght, and hope the Dubliners drop points against UCD on the final day.

Rovers are eight points clear at the top and have a far superior goal difference and they'll be crowned champions should Derry fail to beat Sligo Rovers on Monday night. It's a big ask but Higgins is refusing to wave the white flag while it remains mathematically possible.

The Derry supremo has guided the club to Europe for the second successive season after Friday night's result and needs just one more point to rubber stamp second place but he has bigger ambitions.

When asked if the result meant the end to their title challenge he responded: "No, because if we win our next two games it goes down to the final day regardless. So it's not over!

"We haven't lost the game which I suppose is a positive," added Higgins. "If we win our next two games it goes down to the final game but we need to just win our next game and take it from there.

"It's a bit of a setback," he agreed. "Although we haven't lost since the back end of May and I hope it stays that way but we have experienced players in key areas and an opportunity to bounce back on Monday night which is great and we'll try to go to Sligo and win."

A compact and well drilled Shelbourne arrived on Foyleside with a gameplan to smother their opponents and hit on the counter and Derry found it difficult to gain any sort of rhythm during the first half.

"It's frustrating," reflected the City boss afterwards. "It's one of those ones where they sat in and tried to hit us on the break.Our play was a bit slow and pedestrian, particularly in the first half. Second half we grew into it. We played with more intensity, put more crosses into the box and asked more questions.

"But we weren't ourselves. It can happen. We've been on a brilliant run. It's not always going to be perfect but it's important when it's not great that you don't lose the game and we didn't."

In fact Derry could have won it at the death with Mark Connolly and Thomson both going close.

"We were knocking on the door and (Cian) Kavanagh caused them problems when he came on. It just wasn't to be although we did control large parts of the game. Until halfway through the second half onwards was when we really started to create some chances. I do feel, on the balance of play we shaded it. We weren't great but we'll take the point and move on."

Brian Maher's misplaced pass to the feet of a grateful Jack Moylan gave Shels their breakthrough against the run of play with 20 minutes to go but Higgins was fully supportive of his No.1 who has been one of his standout performers this season, describing the goalkeeper as 'the best in the country'.

"Moylan has put it away well but Brian is an exceptional young goalkeeper - the best in the country and he's proved that throughout the season. He's made a mistake and got punished for it and he'll learn from it because he's keen to get better and always looking to improve.

"He's been brilliant for us. He's made a mistake and mistakes happen. The best keepers in the world make mistakes. The best penalty takers in the world miss penalties - it happens. Brian has been brilliant for us - a huge signing for the club and he's only going to get better."

If Friday night's match was a dress rehearsal for the November 13th FAI Cup Final, hopefully the showpiece proves to be much more of a spectacle. There's a lot more football to be played before then, however, so Higgins didn't read too much into how the latest clash between the teams panned out.

"The cup final will be the cup final and we'll look after that after the last league game. It wasn't a brilliant game of football there's no doubt about that but you have to win games in different ways. I Know we were knocking at the door and they were looking for the final whistle but it's not always going to be brilliant, entertaining free flowing attacking football. They're a good side, they're well organised and have done a lot of damage to a lot of top teams.

"We're not happy that we didn't win the game but we're really proud of the players' efforts who keep going to the end."