Patrick McEleney says Derry City have only themselves to blame for title woe

Patrick McEleney is already looking forward to the new campaign

Patrick McEleney says Derry City can have no excuses for falling short in this season’s title race, as they prepare to face St Patrick’s Athletic on the final day with second place the only prize on offer.

A draw on Friday night will secure the Candystripes a runners-up slot for the second successive season and, while European football has already been guaranteed, the expected challenge to Shamrock Rovers fell far short of expectations.

“It’s not what we set out to do,” McEleney acknowledged. “It’s not as if we were setting up in pre-season to finish second, but the fact of the matter is we fell short and we want to try and do the business now on Friday.”

The City captain did admit that Rovers deserved to be crowned Champions, but also noted that Derry missed countless opportunities to catch them.

“You could say we threw it away, but there were loads of things that happened throughout the year,” he said. “It wasn’t one thing, it wasn’t two things, you’re talking 10 things. At the end of the day, they deserved to win it and that’s it. It’s over the course of the year and it’s in black and white. There are no excuses to be made.”

It has been a particularly frustrating season for the City skipper, who has been unable to play a full 90 minutes since March 31 due to an Achilles isssue, instead making cameo appearances in games.

“It’s been no secret about the injury I was trying to get through and that makes it 10 times worse whenever that frustration is piling up with the frustration of the results,” he explained. “It’s been difficult, there’s no point lying about it.

“I’ll go for the surgery now and try and get it fixed, but I’ve just been playing and trying to