'The most gut-wrenching night' in Ruaidhri Higgins' managerial career

​It was the biggest defeat of his managerial career as his team capitulated and were uncharacteristically like lambs to the slaughter against a Saints team who smelt blood and picked them off ruthlessly.

The toothless 2-0 loss to Shamrock Rovers at Brandywell at the beginning of May was the only other time Higgins' team were defeated so comprehensively and worryingly without a fight.

'Soft-centred' and 'fragile' were two other well chosen words Higgins used to describe the performance and the manner of the goals conceded which were largely of their own making.

"Without a shadow of a doubt, the most gut-wrenching night since I've taken over that's for sure.," said the Derry boss.

"Up until 1-0 there wasn't much in the game, we were fine but from that moment on we lost our composure, we lost our discipline and it's unacceptable.

"Over the last couple of years we've had a good defensive record but we looked fragile tonight, very, very fragile.

"We need to eradicate all those errors and make sure we become harder to beat than what we were tonight because it was well, well, well below par and unacceptable."

Derry lost just six games during the entire season in 2022 when they finished runners-up in the league and already they've fallen to five defeats, leaving little wriggle room in the second half of the campaign.

Higgins, quite rightly pointed out, this season's league is like few others with so many teams dropping points and going through head-scratching winless runs, including the other three teams occupying the top four spots.

"It's a different season. More teams are dropping more points. Five defeats isn't good enough and I won't stand here and tell you any different , I take full responsibility, I'm in charge of the team. As a group we all take responsibility.

"We had travelling fans coming down here in good numbers on a Monday. We apologise to them. I'm gutted for them that they had to come down and witness that type of performance.”