{"id":1122242,"date":"2026-07-31T14:10:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1122242\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T14:10:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:10:18","slug":"we-have-to-have-full-focus-on-the-league-now-derry-citys-new-signing-looks-ahead-to-tough-st-pats-task-after-crashing-out-of-europe-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1122242\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We have to have full focus on the league now\u2019: Derry City\u2019s new signing looks ahead to tough St Pat\u2019s task after crashing out of Europe at home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winger Darragh Burns states that Derry City<\/a> can\u2019t dwell on their European adventure ending and quickly turn their attention to finishing the season strongly, starting with Sunday\u2019s clash against St Patrick\u2019s Athletic<\/a> (KO 5pm).<\/p>\n

Tiernan Lynch\u2019s side will feel their European experience<\/a> this campaign will be a case of what might have been, after suffering a narrow 1-0 home defeat to HNK Rijeka<\/a> in the UEFA Conference League<\/a> on Thursday night, losing 2-0 on aggregate to the Croatian\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Derry certainly had their chances in both legs against Rijeka and they also had CSKA Sofia on the rocks in their Europa League<\/a> games, but regardless the Foylesiders suffered four European defeats and now much pick up the pieces for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Ospreys<\/a>\"Republic<\/a><\/p>\n

The 23-year-old, who is in line to start against his former club at Richmond Park, believes the City squad is good enough to push up the league and still harbour hopes of them returning to the European stage next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have so much to play for and for us to continue our European campaign this season was always going to be a big ask, but look it\u2019s done now and we have to go again,\u201d he insisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cSunday is a massive game for us and I think the St Pat\u2019s match can be a kickstart to the second half of the season, which is needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to start climbing up the table and try to get into those European spot, to set us up for next year and that\u2019s what we want as a group and as a whole club, so it\u2019s now just all about focusing on St Pat\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a lot of games to go and if we can put a run together then I think we can turn the season around and there\u2019s no reason why we can\u2019t do that, because the quality is in the dressing room.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve some really, really good players and look it starts on Sunday. The European thing is done now, we\u2019re obviously disappointed with the Rijeka lost, but we can\u2019t dwell on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said we still have a lot of league games remaining and the FAI Cup is still there, so there\u2019s still so much to play for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen Kenny\u2019s side currently sit in second spot and Burns know it\u2019s going to be tough against the Saints.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, St Pat\u2019s are a good side, they have a good manager and good players,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cRichmond is never an easy place to go to, obviously I played there for a good couple of years, I had a good time there and I enjoyed my time there, but they\u2019ll be ready, especially as they\u2019ve had a longer break than us, I think they\u2019ll have nine days rest and preparation for the game, while we obviously played on Thursday, so yeah, it\u2019s going to be tough, but we have to be ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to go to Richmond Park and try to win the game, get three points and that\u2019s what we\u2019ll be aiming to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burns, who signed from Grimsby Town only a few weeks ago, is itching to get more game time, but also concedes he\u2019s still a bit away from most of his team-mates in terms of fitness.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, it\u2019s a tricky one, because the English season and the Irish season are obviously opposite and I was on my off-season break, while the league here is in full swing, with half the season already played,\u201d he conceded.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously I\u2019m working hard in training, but the staff knew when I signed that it would probably take me a couple of weeks to get going, but look, I\u2019m ready, and the best way to get fit is by playing games and getting minutes under the belt, so when I\u2019m called upon and needed I\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ex-Shamrock Rovers<\/a> man knows every League of Ireland player love to play in European fixtures and Burns is no different.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, European football is massive for the club, the Brandywell rocking and European nights are special,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for clubs in Ireland, European matches are magical nights and you want them every year. You want to try and push yourselves to go further and further in all European competitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew Thursday night was going to be tough, these European games are always tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cRijeka are a good side, but obviously they had a 1-0 lead going into the second leg and that was a big plus for them, but look we need to dust ourselves down and go again on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to have full focus on the league now and try to climb into those European positions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Premier Division on Sunday, Waterford entertain Shelbourne and Galway United travel to Bohemians.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow sees a full First Division schedule down for decision, with leaders Cork City hosting Athlone Town; Patrick McEleney\u2019s Finn Harps travel to Longford Town; Kerry entertain Cobh Ramblers; second-placed Bray Wanderers make the trip to Wexford and UCD have home advantage over Treaty United.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winger Darragh Burns states that Derry City can\u2019t dwell on their European adventure ending and quickly turn their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1122243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[16767,263368,2000,12765,299,5187,35975,132151,305559],"class_list":["post-1122242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-derry","tag-derry-city-fc","tag-eu","tag-europa-conference-league","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-football","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-st-patrick-s-athletic"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117014997173866015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1122242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1122243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1122242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1122242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1122242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}