Tiernan Lynch warns high flying Derry City must guard against complacency in Drogheda

​The Belfast man has been delighted with the work ethic shown by his troops after a trio of big wins against Shelbourne, St Pat's and Cork City last week but he expects no let-up against a team who have already taken their scalp this season.

Drogheda have been leading the way for most of the season but one win in their last six has seen them slip to third ahead of the visit of Derry.

In stark contrast Derry travel to the banks of the Boyne as the form team in the league but Lynch is taking nothing for granted with that 3-1 reversal at Brandywell last April still fresh in the memory.

"That was probably our lowest point of the season to date. It was a game we were hugely disappointed in because we felt up until the sending off it was a game we were very much in control of and very much in the ascendancy. And it all went wrong.

"To be at a club like this, defeats like that have to sting and they have to sting until such times until you can take that sting away."

Lynch puts Derry’s recent resurgence down to hard work and while confidence is high in the group, he’s mindful of the fine line between confidence and arrogance ahead of the trip to Co. Louth.

“There's no substitute for hard work. I've absolutely no issue with confidence but I do have an issue if it starts to become arrogance.

"I think the only time you can be arrogant is when the season is over and you've had some form of success or trophy in the bag.

"Up until that point you haven't done anything yet. And we're very aware that we haven’t done anything yet.

“We'll not get carried away. I try very hard not to get too high with the highs and too low with the lows. “Albeit that's difficult but our big thing is keeping that level platform and remaining humble and working hard and that's what we'll do.”

Lynch has disregarded the form book ahead of this clash and knows his team must be at their best to keep their unbeaten streak intact.

"You're as good as your next game and that's it. We're under no illusions here about how difficult this league is. One week you're top of the world and two weeks' later you could be looking up.

"I think the job that Kevin [Doherty] has done there has been unbelievable. The group of players he has, he's getting the very best out of. He's playing a system and a style that works for him and I don't think anyone can knock that. They are there [top end of table] on merit.

"I don't think there's any easy games in this league and I know I say that every week. This week's no different. We have to put a gameplan together and try to implement what we feel will work for us at that particular ground against that particular team.

“The big thing for us is, 15 games in we keep our feet very firmly on the ground. We don't look too far ahead. Friday night is as far as it goes for us.

"We give everything we have and hopefully we're good enough to get three points. If that’s not the case then we dust ourselves off and we go again.

“There's areas we still need to get so much better in and we know that. I think the success we've had to date has been very much based around the work ethic that's been going into games.

“We know we're a very, very talented group and we know there’s so much more that can come from us.”​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​