Derry City defender Mark Connolly gives his reaction to the club's comeback win over Finland's KuPS at Brandywell.
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00:00 Well Mark, what a fantastic night here at the Brandywell. I haven't seen the place
00:04 rocking like that for a long time. Yeah listen it was special. I thought the boys were exceptional
00:11 tonight. I thought everyone, the boys that came on, everyone that played tonight, gave
00:15 absolutely everything and the fans were special tonight. They were, the second half, they
00:21 were one of the big main reasons why we got over the line and we need that every week.
00:26 We need a Brandywell like that every week. Obviously over the last few months we haven't
00:32 got the results and it's been difficult but tonight was special and if we have that every
00:39 week at the Brandywell we'll not be far away in every competition we play.
00:44 We expected them to be a step up in class from the first of them but the way they started,
00:49 what were you thinking at that stage? I know you said they'd done your homework but they
00:52 were definitely a class actor. Yeah listen, the first ten minutes we had to sort of suss
00:59 it out a wee bit. You can watch videos and you can get information on players and the
01:03 way they move and the way they rumble. See when it comes to a game, it's kind of where
01:08 you suss things out. I thought the first ten minutes we didn't get the grips with it completely
01:13 and then I thought after the ten minutes I thought we were comfortable. I thought we
01:19 sort of sussed them out and whatever the dangers were we dealt with it. Obviously they get
01:26 the penalty which was frustrating but I thought the second half, the way we on the front foot
01:32 and the way we played, some of the football was outstanding. Some comments about us being
01:38 hard working and stuff but we've got some exceptional players on the team. We've got
01:42 an honest group of boys that will run through brick walls here and that's the minimum for
01:47 this club and this city. I thought tonight everyone showed that. Yeah the first half
01:52 you had some great chances, obviously hit the bar as well too. Then it just got drenched
01:56 and then the penalty. Talk us through the penalty because it was close quarters the
02:00 shot. It was difficult, you're sort of going to block it and I never stretched out my arms
02:06 you're kind of torn in your body and it's hit me in the arm, there's nothing I can do.
02:09 It's close range, it's coming at you on the mile an hour so there's very little you can
02:13 do. The timing of it too was just sickening. Yeah we could have kind of went under from
02:20 there, we could have 1-0 going in just on the stroke of half time, it's not really dealing
02:24 with that but the second half was the character and the mindset of the boys that come out.
02:30 It could have been easy to just be feeling sorry for ourselves and just try and take
02:34 a 1-0 win in the Finland but the way we went in the second half was incredible. Yeah the
02:39 subs obviously made a massive impact, Paul was outstanding, I think it just ignited it
02:45 didn't it in the second half and then Cain obviously popping up with a goal as well.
02:49 Yeah listen Cain came on, he's a handful, he scored his goal for us, he said it was
02:54 in the shower there and I wish he had got one or two more. But the way he came on, he worked
02:59 his socks off and he was brilliant and then Paul, Paul has that, Paul is, I'm not going
03:05 to keep saying it but he's pre-season, it's going to take him a little bit of time to
03:10 get up to speed but every game that he's played and he's shown his quality. He's going to
03:14 get bums off seats and I think it was brilliant for the manager at the time when he brought
03:18 him on. Every time he got on he was just so positive, going at their left back every time,
03:27 some of the deliveries every time was incredible. Some of his habit. Yeah, he's probably following
03:32 it through the whole game. No but aye the wee man was brilliant but listen everyone
03:36 I thought, Ronan Boyce that right back was outstanding, Ben Doherty was outstanding
03:41 between the full-backs, me being a defender but that's kind of where I look at the defensive
03:45 side and the top of the two boys were incredible. Brian Mahers pulled off an incredible save
03:49 in the second half to keep us in the game and then all the boys in front of that were amazing.
03:54 Gives you real belief now going onto the second leg and you've got to just repeat that kind
03:59 of performance. You don't want to go and shut up shop as Rory was saying, just go and play
04:03 the way that works for you and work tonight. We'll go there, we'll give it a go. It's not
04:08 going to be easy, it's going to be an extremely tough game over there. They've got plenty
04:13 of international players, tactically very good, technically very good. They're near
04:17 up top in the Finnish league so it's going to be tough but we'll go there and we'll give
04:22 it an absolute right go. We're not going to sit off and hopefully we can get a result.