Tiernan Lynch hoping victory over Shelbourne can be turning point for Derry City

Dipo Akinyemi scored with his first touch after coming off the bench against Shelbourne, securing Derry's first win since February and a first on the road in six attempts.

Defiantly the Brandywell boss insists he's 'never going to change' his approach as he looks to salvage the season after a seven-match winless run which left them 11 points adrift of early pacesetters Shamrock Rovers.

Suddenly, that much-needed and character-building win at Shelbourne has changed the mood on Foyleside. Five points from three tricky away fixtures at Sligo Showgrounds, Oriel Park and Tolka Park in the space of a week has provided some optimism ahead of an historic move to their 'adopted home' at Celtic Park this Friday night. It's imperative they now capitalize on that.

The pressure on Lynch's shoulders has eased somewhat but the Belfast man knows it will mean little if they don't follow it up with a positive result against the reigning champions on Friday night.

"I'm never going to change what I do or how I do it," he said when asked how the recent criticism had affected him. "People that pay their money to get in have a right to say whatever they want to say. I have no issues with that and I don't take it personally.

"This is a great group of players and I do my 14 or 15 hours a day to make sure Derry City can try to get to where it needs to be and nothing is going to rock me from that.

"The biggest part for me was the disappointment for the players because I felt they deserved more. I know they are better than the results have shown.

"Tonight is just one win. It's three points - that's all it is. We have to dust ourselves down, recover over the next couple of days, get back in on Monday and build upon it.

"The fans have shown a lot of frustration but there's probably no one more frustrated than us. We want to give the fans what they want. That's always our intention. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out like that. We knew with bringing so many players in that we were never going to flick a switch or turn this around straight away.

"We were probably frustrated we got ourselves into the position we're in but its our job now to get ourselves back out of it."

Did he feel the criticism levelled at the team and the calls for his head were warranted?

"It's not my place to say whether it's fair or unfair. I think if you look at the league table, it'll tell you it's very much fair. If you look at some of the things I look at on a daily basis; the work and effort and commitment the boys put in and the fine margins, you might say it's a little bit unfair.

"Listen, I've no gripes with it. I take it squarely on the chin but I'd prefer it be angled at me rather than the players. They work their backsides off. Every single one of them, to a man, so it is what it is and I hope they can now go and build on this and try and bring it into next Friday."

A paltry 35 tickets were sold for the away end at Tolka Park as Derry fans voted with their feet but Lynch hopes the 2-1 win which lifted them from seventh into fifth spot can be a catalyst for an upturn in their fortunes.

The result in Drumcondra was most pleasing for Lynch as it was just reward for how his players have conducted themselves over the past few weeks despite the growing discontent amongst their own fanbase.

"It's one of those situations where the players have to take all the credit for this. I just told them in the changing room afterwards that we've had a difficult period, but at no stage during that period did they ever down tools or not given their all or not work hard every single day in training.

"We kept talking about how, if we kept doing the right things eventually we will turn that around.

"We've had a difficult couple of weeks being on the road. We had a difficult point away to Sligo. A difficult point away to Dundalk and then thankfully three points tonight and I think they've got to take all the credit.

"Tonight our subs made a big difference. They were able to keep the energy in the game and that was really important for us. We knew from watching Shelbourne all week they they move the ball really well, they keep possession, so it was important we did the work out of possession and I thought they did that brilliantly.

"Great credit to big Dipo. He came on, and with his first kick of the ball, he put it in the net. Then we had to defend and great credit to the whole team—I thought we defended brilliantly.

"I'm not going to get overly carried away with this. It's what we do about it now. Three points doesn't mean a huge amount unless we build on this and carry this win into the next game which is obviously a massive game for us at our adopted home to Rovers.

"Probably more than anything I'm pleased for the players because they've been absolutely fantastic, and it would've been very easy for them to down tools. It would've been very easy for them to throw the heads. It would've been very easy for them to turn on each other in times like that but they've been magnificent."

Does he think it will mark a turning point?

"I hope so. We now need to build on this. We need to get better at keeping clean sheets hopefully we have a couple more players to come back; start getting Cameron Dummigan 90 minutes and Dipo [Akinyemi] 90 minutes. Hopefully get Mickey Duffy back. Obviously Brian Maher has to come back so there's still lots of big names to come back firing on all cylinders, hopefully if we can get that we will start to improve." A bumper attendance is expected for Friday's historic match at Celtic Park - the first soccer fixture played at the venue since 1943 and Lynch hopes his team can start giving back to the fans with a result matching the occasion.

"You mention the fans and nobody knows more than me how frustrating it is. Football is a results based industry and the fans will very much look at the results - that's what they do but for us there was fine margins there. We were probably more frustrated than anybody.

“We hope we can start giving them back now and build on this. But there’s difficult road ahead. we just have to keep our heads down, keep our backsides up, and keep working hard, hopefully bringing in some results."