City of Derry have areas to improve but we stay positive says coach Eugene Murnane

After the optimism of their opening day victory over Randalstown, Derry have slipped to back to back defeats, first to a Craig Gilroy inspired Bangor and most recently at home to the Chambers Park club who grabbed a brace of tries in each half to leave with a five point haul.

It was a frustrating afternoon for Derry who were well in the contest for the first hour but faded and failed to register on the scoreboard with Murnane, who saw Stephen Corr limp off with a hamstring injury in the first half at the weekend, conceding they made things difficult for themselves at times.

"It was a tough day, disappointing," explained the Derry Head Coach, "Again, I can't fault the boys' commitment. They played up to the end, they kept trying for the full 80 minutes. Like last week we made some stupid errors, made a rod for an own downfall. Some missed tackles cost us as well as a bit of naivety.

"We have got a few young boys who are playing in key positions. They're going to keep getting better with experience but at the moment we are having to ride the results for them to gain that experience. We are having to throw them into positions where perhaps we shouldn't be having to. But these are the circumstances, this is where we are at the moment."

Turning around 13-0 down having had to face a stiff breeze in the first half Derry were well positioned in the game but a misfiring line-out and an insistence on playing expansive rugby in difficult conditions didn't help the home cause.

"I thought we started off really well for the first 15 minutes. At half-time I still thought we were more than in with a chance of getting something from the game," added Derry's Welsh coach, "The third try was a big one and you saw with the last couple of tries, we showed a bit of naivety. They had two or three overlapping and that’s simple defence structure but look, we know there is work to do.

"The line-out wasn't working and I know it’s a dirty day but we can't blame the conditions because it was the same for Portadown. Again, believe it or not, the line-out was good against Bangor last week and the scrum was good too.

"It was a day for keeping possession and respecting possession but we would go three or four phases and then try to offload. That fact is the offload wasn't on but we would still try to force it.

"For us it's about learning from each game. I'm not the type of coach that if things are going wrong - if for arguments sake the scrum had gone wrong today - I'm not the type to have scrums in training all next week. I don't coach on reaction. I try to coach generally on the areas we have to improve and there are a lot of areas we need to improve. Defence is a big one for us now."

Despite his disappointment at the result, Murnane said he came into the job with his eyes wide open after a summer in which City of Derry lost more than 10 of last season's First XV squad.

"No, there no cause for panic but like I've said, neither can it go on. Come Christmas time we can't be saying there's no cause for panic, I know that as well. We will need eventually to win some rugby matches, so we just keep working.

"Like I said to the boys, I've bought into it, I'll keep battling to the end. I'm used to that anyway but we've had a good response off them, even there in the dressing room so we'll see. I couldn't question the attitude. They played the full 80 today which they didn't do last week. There are lots of little things we can improve but we will work on them and stay positive."