Title chasing Derry City 'made of the right stuff' says Ruaidhri Higgins

The City boss had no issue with Sam Todd's second yellow card which handed Shels the advantage 35 minutes into the clash at Tolka Park but felt his team had 'deserved' three points based on the chances created.

The Brandywell men were certainly the aggressors during the opening half hour and looked the likeliest to take the lead with Conor Kearns beating away Michael Duffy's volley from close range after 15 minutes the closest either side came to winning the match.

Higgins was 'proud' of how his players responded and while Shels remain three points clear with a game in hand, he's taken plenty of positives from this latest battle between the league's top two.

"Eleven versus eleven we should have been two or three up," said the Derry boss. "We were the better team, we were the dominant team and we looked like we were in the ascendancy and then you get a man sent off and obviously your plan flips on its head and you have to become more of a counter-attacking threat.

"But I'm really, really proud of the players to be honest because we showed two sides of us when it was 11 versus 11. Played some beautiful football, 11 v 10. We rolled our sleeves up, showed proper commitment, proper desire and thoroughly deserved the point and over the piece, even over the 95 minutes, we had the better chances in the game."

While Higgins had no complaints about Todd's second yellow card as the defender dragged back Liam Burt inside the Shels half, the City boss felt the home side were fortunate to finish with 11 men.

"Well I've absolutely no issue with the sending off but it's double standards. What I do have an issue with is John Martin, one of their players, Paul McMullan, beat him in a one-on-one going into the final third. It's a promising attack. John Martin brings him down and the punishment's not the same and then subsequently he gets brought off 30 seconds later. That's where my issue lies.

"But I'm really proud of the players. To a man, they poured their guts out on the pitch. It gives you real pride to be leading the group because they've given absolutely everything to make sure that we left here with a minimum point and to be honest, I felt we deserved three."Higgins and his opposite number Damien Duff appeared involved in a heated exchange at the final whistle but the Derry supremo described it as 'handbags'.

"It's just emotions, isn't it? It's an emotional game. They want to win, we want to win. It's handbags really. There's nothing to really talk about."

Asked if he discovered anything about the mentality of his squad after this latest top of the table clash, Higgins responded:

"I found out that we're up for it. I found out that we're made of the right stuff and let's be honest, there's more than two teams involved in it and anybody that thinks any different is wrong. So it makes it very, very interesting and exciting and I've no doubt after tonight that we're up for the challenge."