SHELBOURNE BOSS Damien Duff played down a tense exchange with Derry City boss Ruaidhrí Higgins at the end of Monday’s Premier Division clash at Tolka Park.
It ended scoreless as Derry survived despite playing most of the match with 10 men following Sam Todd’s first-half red card.
Duff, who previously worked with Higgins as part of Stephen Kenny’s backroom staff for the Irish national team, put the incident down to “emotion, tension” and said: “Ruaidhrí is probably my only friend in the League of Ireland so I guess I’ve none left now. I never had many anyway. There is no one else to talk to.
“On a serious note, I love Ruaidhrí, whether I get a chance to speak to him now, he was the one person that kept me sane when I was in the Irish gig. [I've] so much respect for him, what he’s done at Derry. He’s a brilliant, brilliant guy. He’s a big boy, I am. We’ll brush it off.”
"It was the most entertaining bit of the game!"
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) August 5, 2024
"There's definitely something been said there."
The lads in studio on that Duff/Higgins moment at full-time.#SHEDER | #LOI pic.twitter.com/j1YG716vCi
Asked whether the tension was due to Derry wanting a red card for John Martin following a bad challenge during the game, Duff replied: “I’m fine with that. That’s big boy football. Todd was sent off because he deserved to be sent off. That’s the game — you need to influence people.
“I’m not going to sit down like I’m at church. I think it was last season here, they did Paddy Barrett a kipper getting him sent off. I never made myself out to be an angel and I don’t think they should either. There were plenty of yellows — there was a red — but none of our players deserved to be sent off.”
The result left table toppers Shelbourne three points ahead of Derry City with a game in hand.
However, Duff felt it was “a better point” for their opponents and suggested nerves were a factor in his side’s below-par display, as they prepare for 11 more crucial games that could set them up for a first title triumph since 2006 and 14th in their history.
“I just thought there was a real slowness, pedestrian [manner] to how we moved the ball,” he explained.
