Russell pleased with Limerick battling spirit

Limerick manager Martin Russell was pleased to see his side fight to the death, knowing that a habit of “scoring late goals is important in the game”, after a late victory at Derry City on Friday night.
 

The Superblues made it back-to-back wins with the club’s first ever success at The Brandywell, thanks to second-half goals from captain Shane Duggan and top scorer Rory Gaffney.
 

Duggan’s opener had been cancelled out by Barry McNamee’s close-range header shortly after. But Limerick continued to attack and they grabbed a deserved winner when Gaffney pounced on a mistake in the dying seconds of the 90.
 

That added to the previous week’s win at home to Athlone Town and it moved them level on 38 points with Derry, with a top-half finish now a real possibility.

But Russell is aware that securing the necessary results to achieve that will be difficult, with Sligo Rovers and Shamrock Rovers the opposition in their closing two matches.
 

“We’ve got two games to go, so we’ll go and try to win those if possible,” Russell told LimerickFC.ie. “We know we’re going to have to play well to do that.
 

“It would be nice to get a win in our final home game next week. We’ve got Sligo Rovers and then Shamrock Rovers; both good clubs and good teams. It won’t be easy but we’ll do the best that we can.
 

“It was good to get the three points in Derry. I don’t think we deserved to lose, but we’ll take the late winner and we’ll go back with the three points.
 

“In the second half, I think we had a bit more of a cutting edge. In the first half, we sort of threatened up to the edge of the box, but in the second half we began to get a few shots on goal and stuff like that.
 

“Duggy’s goal was a good strike, the ‘keeper saved it and he reacted well to the rebound. The late goal that was given to Rory, it was a first-touch finish placed in the corner. It was pleasing.”
 

Russell introduced Darragh Rainsford at half-time and the youngster could have broken the deadlock just six minutes after the break but he was denied well by goalkeeper Ciarán Gallagher.
 

“Again, we said we would look at one or two things between now and the end of the season,” the boss said. “Darragh got his chance there.
 

“It’s one of those things and I think, to be fair to Darragh, when he came on he gave us fresh impetus in the second half. He did fine.”
 

After a bright start to the second period, Duggan eventually gave Limerick the lead before the hour-mark but they quickly relinquished it, with a concession that disappointed Russell.
 

The 47-year-old, though, was delighted with how his players responded to that setback.
 

“It was a disappointing goal to concede,” he admitted, “and it brings them back to level terms. We’ve had to go and get the late winner, which is good to see – we kept on going to the end and scoring late goals is important in the game as well. We’ll take that.
 

“Overall, as I said, I don’t think we deserved to lose. I think we probably just shaded it. Derry have got a good squad and I think the game overall was a decent footballing game. The pleasing thing for us now is that we played well and we go home with three points.”