Tiernan Lynch hails 'perfect' night in Limerick as Derry City brush aside Treaty in FAI Cup

There is no situation in which results trump performances more than knockout cup football and the objective from Lynch was simple: 'Get into the hat for the next round'.

"Going into the game tonight we never talked about performances," said the Brandywell boss. "We talked about being in the hat. 'Make sure you're in the hat!' Obviously you want a performance and goals on top of that and that was the icing on the cake but you just want to get in the hat," he reiterated.

"These are always those banana skin ones where the opposition are always going to lift their game and you just have to make sure we're on it. You also have to be patient because you're hoping that little bit of cream will float to the top the longer the game goes on.

"So it's important you don't panic and don't start doing things you don't need to do; ride the storm and believe in the process. I thought the boys did that brilliantly tonight."

Everything is a lot more definitive in cup games, especially when ties must be decided on the night. The small band of dedicated Derry supporters who made the long trek to the banks of the Shannon were treated to FIVE second half goals as the Candy Stripes strolled through to Tuesday's third round draw, admittedly after an anxious 53 minutes.

That's the moment hat-trick hero Liam Boyce emerged off the bench and turned this tie on its head!

Michael Duffy played no small part, providing THREE assists from corner kicks! He may well have had a part to play in Boyce’s third and Danny Mullen but wasn't on the pitch.

It was Northern Ireland international Boyce who showed his class on the night, causing havoc in the penalty area which ultimately proved the difference.

When his first headed effort went in just three minutes after coming off the bench, Treaty crumbled. His glancing header on 75 minutes put the tie to bed at 3-0 and he sealed his second hat-trick in three games with a penalty he won himself with five minutes to go.

It was a night where everything Lynch had hoped happen, happened as Dipo Akinyemi looked a handful on his debut; Alex Bannon scored on his full debut and Adam Frizzell also got valuable minutes and added an assist for Mullen.

Former Hull City fullback Brandon Fleming was put through his paces in a rigorous pre-match routine but didn't receive his international clearance in time which was the only sour note of a near perfect night in Munster.

"I thought Danny took his goal brilliantly. It was also great to get 'Frizz' some minutes and Adam O'Reilly some minutes. It was just one of those games where everything we wanted out of it we got and we were very aware it could've been a banana skin. You go 1-0 down and they park the bus and a set piece or anything but thankfully we didn't have to face any of that. It was the perfect night. Well, perfect second half."

It was the perfect tonic in the aftermath of Pat Hoban's explosive interview where he accused Lynch of not giving him a chance to prove his worth.

On a night when all three strikers involved looked sharp, Lynch didn't need to respond to Hoban's barbs, other than praise his players.

"That's the big thing we need to make sure we're starting to get here. We've now got four really good strikers at the club. Obviously Dipo got to make his debut tonight and you probably saw a few glimpses of what he's going to be all about. "To be able to bring people like Liam Boyce and Danny Mullen off the bench shows the strength we have in that forward line. Sean Patton wasn't even able to get on the pitch. So I'm really pleased with that.

"That's a great place to be in. I thought tonight, in the first half at times I thought we played some great football. Maybe just lacked that cutting edge in the final third. In the second half I thought we showed more cutting edge and once we got the goals we were fairly dominant.

"You can see the problem with the likes of Alex [Bannon] and Dipo and even young 'Frizz' and people like that coming in, that's their first competitive games in over six weeks so it's going to take a little bit of time for them. Unfortunately we don't have a huge amount of time but great credit to them, they're working really hard.

"They just have to get through those aches and pains and grind it out and get as many minutes as we can to get up to speed as quickly as we can."

Out of all the second round ties involving the top teams in the country, Sligo Rovers and Derry were handed the trickiest of assignments as the North West outfits travelled to First Division promotion hopefuls Dundalk and Treaty respectively but both prevailed comfortably.

Lynch wasn't happy with his team's first half display as there appeared to be a hangover from the loss to Sligo the previous weekend. When Derry increased the tempo, Treaty weren't able to keep up but it didn't happen often enough in the first half.

"I think we just played too much in front of them and didn't ask enough questions or put the ball in the box enough. We got into good areas but it was like we were trying to walk it into the net.

"It was very similar to our situation last week against Sligo where we got into really good positions but just didn't threaten or penetrate enough or ask enough questions. I thought we did that much better in the second half."

Derry have been involved in two of the last three FAI Cup finals at the Aviva Stadium and it's high on Lynch's list of priorities this season.

"It's massive for a club this size. This was always going to be a tough place to come. You pretty much know what you're getting from all these teams. This is their cup final. The crowd came out behind them and got behind them every time they got forward. It's that old ice in the veins and you have to make sure you're not freezing or panicking in these situations and believe that you're good enough and the quality's there so it will shine through in the end."

After an almost five hour journey to Limerick, a home draw would be nice on Tuesday night.

"Yeah, I think you always want to go home. This was a tough place to come. It's a long old day. There was a lot of travel yesterday and you still have to train so it was never going to be easy. As I said to the players after they take all the credit. They stuck at it. They believed in themselves. They got the first goal. They built on it and finished the job."