Tiernan Lynch says lack of belief was Derry City's downfall in Europe

It was ultimately a disappointing European run as the Candy Stripes failed to improve their lowly coefficient ranking (204th) after losing all four of their ties in both the Europa League and Conference League qualifying rounds this summer.

Lynch rued missed chances, costly individual errors and bemoaned a lack of recognised strikers against the Croatians and insists the club must improve results on the continent or risk a similar fate in the future.

Derry lost both legs of its second round clash with Rijeka 1-0 – a team ranked 134 places above the Candy Stripes in Uefa's Coefficients – but the Croatian side was there for the taking in the early stages of the tie.

CSKA Sofia who dumped Derry out of the Europa League earlier this month are 76 places below the Foylesiders but are returning to Europe after a two-year hiatus, have a £10million playing budget and a rich pedigree in European football.

Derry lost 5-3 on aggregate to the Bulgarians but again had them on the rack in the return leg and were winning 1-0 before crowd trouble halted the match.

Derry's lowly position in the Uefa rankings ensures they must take the difficult unseeded route when they return to European competition, whenever that may be, and Lynch knows it's a situation they must rectify.

Although they were far from disgraced in their four games against top tier opposition, it was a disappointing end to their first European campaign since 2024 despite earning around €700,000 after parachuting into Uefa's third-tier competition. Those earnings could've been north of €1 million had they progressed into the third round.

Given their sixth-place league position and the 14-point deficit from third-placed Bohemians, an FAI Cup triumph may be their only realistic chance of returning to the continent next season as they return to domestic duties against title-chasing St Pats at Richmond Park on Sunday.

"I've been a little bit critical of us in Europe internally because I felt we could have played more in the other three games and had a bit more belief in ourselves," reflected Lynch. "In the first three games I think we went long when it was on to play.

"Tonight we really tried to play and when you try to play, especially when you try to build in your own half you can make mistakes. Sometimes you get punished, sometimes you don't and tonight we got punished for it.

"It's difficult for Derry in Europe because you're not seeded and when you're not seeded, you get tough draws. What we need to start doing is start grinding out results to get that coefficient up to give us a better chance.

"For periods tonight we showed we can play at this level. I think we maybe need a bit more belief but I thought for the first 15 or 20 minutes it was as good as I've seen us.

"Albeit it's all a bit doom and gloom at the moment because we lost but I think how the players conducted themselves over the last four games against top players, top opposition, I think that has to stand us in good stead."

Missed chances and a defensive error were a familiar story at the end of this second leg on Foyleside and Lynch felt the first half goal 'knocked the stuffing' out of his team.

Cameron Dummigan's misjudged backpass was intercepted by Daniel Adu-Adjei, who clinically finished past Brian Maher after 14 minutes. Michael Duffy was outstanding in the first half and hit the woodwork in the second from a free-kick but Liam Boyce's chance three minutes before Rijeka's goal was a turning point in the match.

"If there's anybody in the game you want that to fall to, it's Liam Boyce," said Lynch. "That's Boycie's bread and butter. He tweaked his hamstring very early on and he's gutted in there.

"Cameron Dummigan is gutted in there for his little backpass [that led to the goal]. I don't think you can blame the players. They gave everything and we came up short. We have to learn from it, build from it and hopefully, we'll only get better.

"The biggest thing in all of these games is having that self-belief: putting your foot on the ball and being prepared to pass it and being prepared to play. Unfortunately there's risk that goes with that. When you make mistakes at this level you get punished.

"We want to go and give a good account of ourselves, but the goal knocked the stuffing out of us and gave us a mountain to climb.

"There are a lot of disappointed heads there tonight. Right up until we conceded I thought it's the best we've played. We knocked the ball around well, we were exciting, played on the frontfoot and had two really, really good chances which would've made it a completely different game.

"We didn't take them. We conceded. We huffed and puffed a little bit in the first half but we never really got going in the second half."

When Boyce sustained a hamstring injury, Lynch - who attempted but failed to bring in two strikers before Wednesday's deadline - bemoaned the lack of a recognised No.9 to bring on in the second half.

"The part which is hugely frustrating is we just couldn't put the ball in the net in both European home games. Liam Boyce did his hamstring in the first half and had to come off.

"Unfortunately we don't have a recognised striker to play through the middle and James Clarke is playing centre forward and I feel sorry for the kid because it's not his position. He's not someone who leads the line or runs in behind. He's an attacking midfielder that comes to the ball. So we probably missed that focal point."

It's back to domestic duties against St Pat's in Richmond Park on Sunday and it's a quick turnaround as Derry attempts to climb the table in their final 11 fixtures.

"We don't have a huge amount of time to recover for it. We don't have a huge squad either. I think we have four or five injured at the moment but we just have to dust ourselves off and have a recovery day tomorrow and come back in Saturday to prepare for Sunday."