Tiernan Lynch not getting carried away by impressive win over Shelbourne

​The Belfast man insists his team remain a work in progress and refused to get carried away with the 2-0 win which left them two points off the top of the table prior to Monday night's visit of St Patrick's Athletic.

It was the perfect tonic to last Friday's 2-1 loss in Waterford and Lynch was delighted to give the fans something to cheer about, particularly with Shelbourne's title celebrations last November fresh in the minds of many.

"I was absolutely delighted," said the City boss. "I couldn't be more proud of them.

"We let ourselves down last week and more importantly let the fans and the club down in a way below-par performance.

"That was totally out of character for this group of boys. I've been saying it from the minute I walked in the door that they're an unbelievable bunch and they worked their socks off. I thought they showed a proper reflection of themselves tonight."

It was that workmanlike performance, the high pressing and the 'ugly' side of the game which impressed the City gaffer most on the night.

"Their work ethic," he began. "Pulling that shirt over your head has to mean everything. It looked like that tonight. I keep telling them there's top footballers in that changing room and they'll always play good football and the possession stuff will come very naturally.

"It's having that dirty side of the game out of possession and getting people who would maybe be known as flair players that are willing to roll their sleeves up and do the dirty work. I felt we got that in abundance."

It was Derry's fifth clean sheet of the season after 13 games and having scored just FIVE goals in their opening seven games, the Candy Stripes have now netted NINE times in their last four matches. Lynch is starting to see more than just green shoots. He did, however, stress his team is not yet the finished article.

"We've probably come under a bit of criticism and rightly so for the goals we've conceded. And that's something we have to cut out of our game.

"Again, great credit to the players, they're working very hard at it. I think tonight there were periods where we played some really good football. You also have to take into consideration that this team is very much still finding itself.

"Our objective is to try and dominate games from minute one to minute 90 or whatever it is but this is a tough league. There's top teams in this league, top players and top managers and it's always going to be difficult. I think we'll only get better. As long as we get the basics right we'll be okay.

"We've dropped stupid points at stupid times and conceded stupid goals. We also haven't been as clinical as we'd like to be. They are an honest bunch of boys and it hurts them more than it hurts anybody. We just have to keep believing in ourselves, keep doing the work and rolling our sleeves up. The biggest thing of all is the work ethic."

A buzz of optimism swept back into the Brandywell stands after Friday's result but Lynch remains grounded.

"This was always going to take a bit of time and we haven't done anything yet. We're only into the top half of the table for the first time.

"So we're not now going to start thinking we're going to win this league by 50 points or anything like that. It's one win. It was a great win and a great performance with great work ethic.

"The fans were outstanding once again getting behind us which makes a massive difference. It's three points. We got the basics right tonight and it's important we go and build on that. That's the key to me.

"We want to be a team that's up there and challenging. If we want to be that we have to relish these games and big players have to stand up.” Tactically Lynch's gameplan worked to perfection as they soaked up the pressure, defended stoically and forced Shelbourne into mistakes with a high press which resulted in the second goal when Boyce charged down Sam Bone's attempted clearance before applying the finish.

It was a far cry from the performance when the teams last met on the opening day of the season as Shels cruised to a 3-1 win.

"Listen, it's one win,” he reiterated. “It's three points and nothing else. We'll not get too carried away.

"The first game of the season was obviously our first game in charge. We were coming into this a little bit blind. We were probably not as organised as we could and should've been. We conceded stupid goals that night.

"I thought we were very organised tonight. In possession and out of possession there was a great structure about what we were doing.

"Obviously you'd like to dominate the game a little bit more but that's all things we'll work towards. We don't want to get too carried away looking at the league [table].

"There's certainly no winners' medals handed out in May and we're fully aware of that. If you're asking me the same question at the end of October then it would be a much better position.

"The big thing we need to look at and we just talked about it as a group inside, is we need to find consistency in our own performances. We've been getting two wins and dropping off. Getting one win and dropping off. Now we've got to see if we can put a run of wins together.”